International Business Theory books

The growing field of social entrepreneurship sits between purpose-built start-ups that pursue a traditional for-profit business model, and the conventional non-profit models that depend on grants, charity and public funding. Because of their position, social entrepreneurs face a unique challenge to balance social impact with financial returns, and must replicate and scale their business models when seeking to internationalize. This book, the fifth in the Actions and Insights series under the auspices of AIB-MENA, explores how various start-up models, whether private sector-led, private sector-incubated, or more traditional non-profit ventures, have built a business model and, in some cases, succeeded in scaling and internationalizing their businesses. Cases here reflect the challenges that social entrepreneurs face, both personal and organizational, and take a variety of perspectives, such as entrepreneurial motivation, ‘doing good well’, empowerment, funding, governance, impact measurement, and understanding the challenges and opportunities that go with scaling.

Strategy Beyond Markets examines how the strategies employed by firms affect long run value. Scholars in this field focus their attention on firm interactions with entities other than the firm's primary market stakeholders. These stakeholders include international NGOs, environmental groups, local communities, regulators, politicians and the courts. This book is organized around three themes: Public politics, private politics, and integrated political strategy. In public politics, firms use sophisticated instruments (e.g., campaign funding, committee participation) to influence local, national, and international political environments. In private politics, firms work closely with NGOs and other special interest groups to preempt unfavorable policy, react swiftly to crises, and proactively develop socially responsible strategies. Additionally, firms that are heavily influenced by politics are more likely to craft integrated political strategy as part of a more comprehensive plan. This special issue comprises papers from preeminent scholars including David Baron, Jean-Philippe Bonardi, Daniel Diermeier, Thomas Lyon, John Maxwell, Ken Shotts, and Dennis Yao.

This PIBR volume examines a number of idiosyncratic elements in the internationalization strategies of BRIC MNEs and, in particular, in their relationship with home country policies: 1. The theoretical challenge: do we need different or more specific theories of EMNEs to assess the phenomenon of BRIC multinationals?  2. The empirical challenge: what marks the changing position of BRIC countries in the world economy?  3. The managerial challenge: with the coming of age of a new breed of multinationals, what distinguishes BRIC multinationals from other (emerging market) multinationals?  4. The policy making challenge: what impact have MNEs from BRIC countries had on their domestic economy?

This latest volume of Progress in International Business Research explores novel ways in which international business is organized. Contributions advance our understanding and stretch our thinking about new organizational and geographic structures in MNCs, and other organizational forms across borders and geographies. Authors ask challenging questions: will the traditional MNC as we know it be replaced by other dominant designs, and what new forms of global organizing can we expect in the future? What do contemporary digital and technological developments, e.g. social media, virtual worlds, and cloud services, imply for the international organization of work, communication, and management practices?