Report 2003: Department of International Economics and Management (INT)
Department of International Economics and Management (INT): Research Report 2003
You may ask yourselves why it is necessary to have a Department of International Economics and Management. What is the difference between running a business in Denmark and in other countries? Surely, the principles of running a business are the same everywhere. Many principles of business economics are indeed universal and context-independent, but a large part of business economics does depend on context. For example, awareness of contextual differences is important to understand how to manage processes in connection with strategy, branding, HRM and knowledge creation, etc. There is a great difference between managing these processes in a familiar Danish context and in a foreign, unfamiliar context.
The raison d’être of the Department is to study the interaction between the international activities of enterprises and the international markets/business environments where they operate. This highly interdisciplinary field of research comprises everything from studies of national differences with regard to regulation and culture to strategic positioning in international markets and control and management of international organisations.
The learning university:
- In a competition between 600 articles, professor Torben Pedersen and Nicolai J. Foss received the much-coveted ”Best Paper Award” at the AIB conference in Monterey, USA (June).
- The Asia Studies program was extended with a division focusing on China (KINØK), which got off to a good start (September).
- Associate professor Snejina Michailova received the Statoil Prize for her outstanding research in the field of business economics (November).
Internationalisation:
- The Department was evaluated by three leading researchers in international business economics – Peter Buckley, Leeds University; Bruce Kogut, INSEAD, and Ingmar Björkman, Hanken, Helsinki (October).
- The Department hosted the EIBA conference with 420 participants, including leading researchers in international business economics (December).
- The Department achieved a very high rate of publication again this year, including several important publications in top journals such as China Quarterly, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies and California Management Review.
Partnership with the business community:
- Asia Business Forum activities started in earnest, including several sponsorships and a series of successful seminars on Asia (January).
- An ”Advisory Board” was established for the BSc programme in International Business with Danish business representatives (SAS and Unilever, among others)
Academic profile
The Department of International Economics and Management covers all aspects of cross-border business activities, including international activities concerning goods, capital, human resources and knowledge. This includes not only management issues in connection with the organisation, management and strategic orientation of the international firm, but also economic, political and cultural differences which influence and are influenced by such enterprises. The research activities are of a highly interdisciplinary nature, drawing on many different theoretical perspectives and disciplines in the study of the international firm.
Department research includes four core areas providing the framework for various groups of Department researchers. The ”Emerging Markets” core area focus is on the transformation from plan to market in ”transition economies” and the consequences at company level. Recent research includes studies on corporate governance in the Baltic states as well as business negotiations in Asia. This research is conducted primarily at the Asia Research Center (ARC) and the Center for East European Studies (CEES) which are affiliated to the Department.
The ” Organisation and Management of the International Firm” core area comprises a broad field, including control of the internationalisation process, relationship management and management of relations between the parent company and foreign subsidiaries, and knowledge processes in the international firm covering the ability of multinational companies to tap into international knowledge environments and use this knowledge in the global organisation. Several Department researchers – Torben Pedersen, Snejina Michailova, Kirsten Foss, Jens Gammelgaard, Sara McGaughey and Dana Minbaeva – are members of the newly established Center for Knowledge Governance.
The last two core areas focus on the external relations of enterprises. ” International Strategy” concerns the positioning of enterprises on foreign markets, e.g. in connection with their choice of market operation and involvement in strategic alliances. ” International Corporate Governance” focuses on various aspects of corporate control such as structures of ownership and executive boards and international variations in such structures.
Research strategy
The unifying principle of the Department across research areas and theoretical aspects is the study of the international firm. This means that Department researchers apply many different approaches and perspectives but have their study object in common. Thus, the Department core area will always be to study the problems of the international firm operating abroad, and both research and teaching priorities are based on this concern.
In order to link research and teaching more closely together, the Department has taken active ownership of and responsibility for developing two study programmes (the BIB and IBS programmes) centred around the international firm. The Department is also actively involved in the establishment of a new MSc programme line entitled Multinational, Strategy, Economics and Governance, which will start in the summer of 2004.
Today, the Department produces significant and interesting research and it is its goal to reach a wider audience and to acquire more significance by disseminating research results more widely. This will be accomplished through a dialogue with the Danish business community and the international research community. The dialogue with the Danish business community will be strengthened through various joint research projects and partnership programmes (à la ReMaiN, Asia Business Forum and the Corporate Governance network) offering partners access to Department activities. The dialogue with the international research community will be enhanced through increased publication in top journals and participation in major conferences, and not least by hosting the EIBA conference in 2003. The central position of several members of the Department staff as editors to important journals constitutes another major Department asset in the dialogue with other researchers.
Research results
An important Department production goal is the number of publications, especially in English-language journals, as these journals are the primary international discussion forums of leading researchers all over the world. In order to enter into a dialogue with leading researchers and to acquire significance in a particular field, researchers must endeavour to have their articles published in the best journals. The Department objective is for as many members of its staff as possible to fulfil this ambition.
Therefore, it has been of particular importance for the Department to increase its publication rate in terms of both quality and quantity. It appears from Figure 1 that the Department succeeded in increasing the number of foreign-language publications with a clearly upward trend over the last 5 years. At the same time the quality has also been significantly improved, especially over the last couple of years, as several articles in 2003 were published in top journals such as: China Quarterly, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, California Management Review and Journal of Business Research.
Figure 1
In 2003, each member of the Department staff had an average of more than two foreign-language articles published in international journals. This is a highly satisfactory level of publication on a par with the best research environments in Europe. In coming years the Department will strive to enhance even further the quality of the journals in which its research is published.
The Department will continue its efforts to ensure that young researchers in particular get to publish their results in international journals (i.a. by collaborating with senior researchers). We are therefore very pleased to see that after a couple of years of studies all INT PhD students are getting their research results published.
In the autumn of 2003, a comprehensive external evaluation of the Department was conducted by two leading researchers: Peter Buckley, Leeds University, and Bruce Kogut, INSEAD. Based on their evaluation of the Department's research they concluded that:
” The upward trend in research achievement is based upon a department which is research focused, collegial and infused with team spirit.”
Research relations to practice
The Department’s strong focus on the problems of the international firm formed the basis of a substantial affiliation to the Danish business community. Over the years, many working relationships have developed in the areas of education (the HD programme in Marketing/Foreign Trade, the BSc programme in International Business and the Internship programme) as well as research (Asia Business Forum, Relationship Management in Networks (ReMaiN) and the Corporate Governance network).
Furthermore, several research projects have been conducted in cooperation with Danish enterprises (e.g. Managing the Dynamic Interfaces between Culture and Knowledge (MANDI)) and with the Confederation of Danish Industries (in connection with the Establishment Study). Partnerships with the business community are high on the Department’s list of priorities, and we therefore expect to launch several significant partnership activities in the course of 2004, i.a. a CBS KM forum for business executives working with knowledge management.
Figure 2
Figure 2 shows that the Department’s research funds increased consistently over the entire 5-year period. The increase includes basic funds as well as internal funding allocations and external funds. In 2003, partnerships provided more external funds than in previous years, and external funds from the research councils were also at a reasonable level. The Department is hopeful of the initiatives launched to establish partnership relations with Danish enterprises in the form of academic dialogue and as a means to attract more external funds to the Department. The partnership activities are given high priority in terms of Department development and visibility to the Danish public.
Last updated by Webmaster 19/11/2004
