Call for submissions
26th EGOS Colloquium, July 1–3, 2010
Lisbon, Portugal
Learning to be global:
Towards more effective global services and service firms
Sub-theme #9
Convenors:
<st1:city w:st="on">Alison</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">Dean</st1:state>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Kent</st1:country-region> Business School, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Kent</st1:placename></st1:place>, a.dean@kent.ac.uk
<st1:personname productid="DAVID BROCK" w:st="on">David Brock</st1:personname>, Guilford Glazer School of Management, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Ben-Gurion</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>, dmb@bgu.ac.il
Ragnhild Kvålshaugen, BI Norwegian School of Management, <st1:personname w:st="on">ragnhild.kvalshaugen@bi.no</st1:personname>
Details for submission of proposals:
December 1, 2009 until January 10, 2010: Time for submission of short papers of 3000 words, to be submitted to the EGOS website (please see www.egosnet.org)
June 1, 2010: Full papers to be uploaded to the EGOS website
Please check the EGOS website for up-to-date information on deadlines and procedures. Abstracts and papers will be available on the EGOS website (www.egosnet.org).
Enquiries concerning this sub-theme # 9 should be directed to any (or all) of the convenors (listed above).
More details on this sub-themes:
This call is for papers from academics and practitioners exploring how services are globalising and how service-based organisations learn to become effective global organisations. How do such organisations transform themselves from national and international firms into global organisations offering coherent services across time and space? Now that academic research has made headway in understanding the nature and dynamics of internationalizing service firms, we propose to continue this trajectory - but reaching towards prescriptive and normative study of what makes more effective global services and global service firms.
Given the intangible nature of many services, the development and maintenance of trust between client and service provider are key. These processes become increasingly complex where the relationship spans time and space (geographic spread) as in international service provision. Learning to be global thus implies developing skills for coherent integration of service provision across the time/space dimensions.
While some services may be commoditised - i.e., are capable of being standardised and hence of being reproduced across locations - or sub-divided into commoditised and specialised activities, others are highly customised and client-provider specific, relying heavily on the client/provider interface. In the context of highly customised services, what does it mean for services and the service provider to be global and how does the service provider achieve the step-change in service delivery in learning to be global?
In many services production and consumption processes are simultaneous, and the client/customer is a co-producer. Where a service provider is becoming global - i.e., replacing or supplementing a range of nationally discrete services with globally cohesive services across boundaries and time zones - co-production may be a complex web in which co-producers are separated across time and space. What managerial competencies are needed for improved effectiveness for international global services firms learning to be global?
Orchestrating service delivery across time and space to achieve the timeliness required of most services also has managerial, organisational and strategic consequences. Learning to be global is thus in part about developing processes to achieve timeliness cohesively where the service may have been sub-divided and re-combined across time and space.
Knowledge and knowledge management processes are of special importance in services. As service firms have grown in size and complexity, human-based knowledge management systems are being supported by complex ICT systems -- themselves the product of specialised knowledge and know-how. Knowledge is sticky and therefore difficult to transfer. Issues of knowledge transfer and exchange become more complex when the organisation is attempting to develop coherence over time and space, i.e., becoming global. How does the organisation develop the systems and processes to ensure appropriate knowledge flows required for improving the effectiveness of global service provision while learning to be global in an organisation dispersed geographically yet requiring integration at organisational and operational levels?
We are interested in both theoretical and empirical contributions. We hope to attract a diversity of theoretical perspectives as well as a cross-section of different services ranging from professional services to services embodied in product-service systems. The sub-theme builds on two previous EGOS sub-themes: The Internationalisation of Services in 2007 and Organising Interdependent Co-production of Services in Time & Space in 2008.
Papers which address the following topics are particularly welcome:
· The reconfiguration of the services value chain in globalising service firms
· Revisiting services typologies in the context of globalising service firms
· The distinctiveness (or otherwise) of learning to be global in the services context
· Knowledge networks and knowledge flows in the global services organisation.
· The impact of changes in global environment on the processes of globalisation for the service firm
· The management of knowledge and learning in global and globalising service firms
· Global learning and knowledge networks in service organisations
· How globalisation affects service delivery
· How globalisation affects performance of service firms
· Global and globalising professional and business service firms
· How globalisation affects the nature of professional and/or business services
· How globalisation affects the nature of professional and/or business service firms
· How globalisation affects the governance of professional services
· The role of professionals in globalising service firms
· The changing nature of the relationship between the service worker and the globalising organisation
· Best practices in knowledge management in global service firms
· Best practices in organisation and governance in global service firms
· Institutionalization of learning in global service firms
ALISON DEAN is Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management at <st1:placename w:st="on">Kent</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Business</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype>, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Kent</st1:placename></st1:place>. Her research interests include the globalisation of professional service firms, the management of innovation and the engineering of tipping points. Her research has been published in Journal of Business Venturing, Academy of Management Review, Journal of World Business, and International Journal of Service Industry Management, amongst others.
DAVID M. BROCK is Associate Professor at the Gilford Glaser School of Management, <st1:placename w:st="on">Ben-Gurion</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of the <st1:place w:st="on">Negev</st1:place>. Recent work includes modeling expatriate deployment and national culture (Journal of International Business Studies); studies of the internationalization - effectiveness tradeoffs of global law firms (Journal of International Management and International Business Review); and ongoing studies of organizational competencies needed for effective global strategies in professional services.
RAGNHILD KVÅLSHAUGEN is Associate Professor at BI Norwegian School of Management. Her research interest is on knowledge management in professional service firms and leader – member relations in knowledge intensive organizations. Her research has been published in various peer review journals and books. She was a member of the program committee at the EGOS Colloquium in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Bergen</st1:city></st1:place> in 2006 and has co-convened two previous EGOS sub-themes.