Call for papers: "Globalisation, the Internationalisation of SMEs and Intangible Assets"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Business and Globalisation.

Globalisation and increased competition are putting new types of pressures on companies and, by extension, on the regions that depend on their success. Flexibility, the ability to immediately adapt to market developments and pro-activism in creating future markets are the earmarks of this new era. In response to increased competition, companies develop “soft” production factors, i.e. factors related to individual knowledge that can be generically grouped in what is known as intangible assets (IA).

There is increasing interest from academia, policy-makers and the corporate environment in the impact of intangible assets on economic processes of globalisation. These assets can be defined as “non-material factors” that contribute to enterprise performance in the production of goods or the provision of services, or that are expected to generate future economic benefits to the entities or individuals that control their deployment. Their link to globalisation is highlighted by the crucial role of international activities in the growth and survival of SMEs.

Studies are focusing on understanding relationships between internationalisation, intangible assets and firm performance. At the firm level, despite the different ways of measuring them, the existing literature suggests that intangible assets account for a large part of corporate assets and are key resources for firms’ competitiveness. Scholars and policy-makers recognise the growing role played by intangible assets on firms’ investment policy and in particular on the support they provide for the internationalisation process. Despite the great difficulties in measurement, firms’ accounting data on intangible assets possess real informative content, and unveil positive effects on firm performance as measured by SMEs’ international activity.

This special issue will consider qualitative and quantitative empirical studies, and theoretical and conceptual research contributions. As the literature on intangibles is found across multiple disciplines, we encourage cross-disciplinary approaches to advance our understanding of the intangibles-entrepreneurship nexus. Therefore, contributions from the field of international business and international entrepreneurship, economics, management, geography and regional studies are welcome and will be considered for this issue.

This issue coincides with the 13th International Conference of the Society for Global Business & Economic Development (SGBED). Authors are encouraged, but not required, to submit their manuscripts on entrepreneurship and intangibles to the conference to get feedback prior to revising for journal submission.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Globalisation and the knowledge economy
• Human capital, intangibles assets and globalisation
• Healthcare, education and workforce development: impact on SMEs
• Intellectual capital, organisational capital and SME internationalisation
• SMEs, brand equity, design, quality and firm-specific growth models
• Measuring and managing intangibles in international markets
• International business, international entrepreneurship and intangible assets
• Internationalisation of family firms and intangible assets
• Intangibles, SME internationalisation and economic development
• Intangible capital and foreign markets: measurement methods for companies and economies
• SMEs, international trade, non-tariff barriers and foreign market entry modes
• Internationalisation of SMEs and ICT (information and communication technologies)
• Financing SMEs, role of the state and incentives, etc.

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 30 September, 2014
Notification to authors: 20 December, 2015
Final versions due: 28 February, 2015