Call for Papers: AIB-UK & Ireland Annual Conference

Contemporary Issues in International Business: Inequality, Geography and GVCs

8-9 April 2022

Call for papers

We are delighted to be hosting the 48th AIB-UKI Annual Conference, jointly organised with the 8th Reading International Business Conference.

The joint conference will combine the best elements of both events. We intend to maintain the Reading tradition of open-ended debates as well as interactive plenary sessions and at the same time we will maintain the tradition of the AIB-UKI conferences to encourage a broader variety of papers to the parallel sessions. We will also offer a pre-conference doctoral colloquium and dedicated sessions for early career and doctoral researchers.

The theme for the conference is Contemporary Issues in International Business: Inequality, Geography and GVCs

As we enter 2022, the economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have made even more obvious the growing economic inequalities between geographic locations and individuals. MNEs are key actors in globalization, not only through trade and investment, but also as coordinators of GVCs. By both passive and active means, MNEs can influence opportunities for workers, both within their hierarchies as well as those of their suppliers and customers. However, it is often argued that MNEs are primarily responsible to their stakeholders, and as such social injustices are not always within this remit, despite the talk of corporate social responsibility and SDGs. MNE-coordinated GVCs face challenges in enforcing higher labour standards, working conditions, and environmental protection of contractual, lower-tier suppliers. In some instances, this has seen a return to internalization and a resultant increased vertical integration. We will focsu on two related questions: First, to what extent is reinternalization a ‘good’ outcome, and second, to what extent can MNEs really help to reduce inequalities within GVCs?

MNEs have also a role to play in spatial inequalities. Cities have become prominent locations for MNE investment, especially in knowledge-intensive activities and this has contributed to the process leading to a winner-take-all economic geography. It has been observed that MNEs cansubstitute local connections with international ones. This can exacerbate the local disconnectedness between the city and its surroundings. However, MNEs are also known for their potential contribution to local spawning engaging with the local entrepreneurial eco-system to create and renew local connectedness. The COVID-19 pandemic has severely hit cities and could bring about a series of social changes in the structure and morphology of cities, suburbs and metropolitan regions which might affect its attractiveness to MNEs. Could this lead the way to the emergence of intermediate cities and contribute to reducing the inequality between cities?