Prelims

Lorraine Eden – A Tribute

The Progress in International Business Research (PIBR) series is an initiative of the European International Business Academy, in collaboration with Emerald Group Publishing. Since 2014, each volume has been dedicated to an International Business (IB) scholar, who has made important and lasting contributions to the scholarly IB community, both in intellectual and institutional building terms. The first two tribute volumes were dedicated posthumously to pinnacle leaders and beloved figures in the IB field, who had unexpectedly passed away at the height of their influence, namely Daniël van den Bulcke (University of Antwerp, Belgium) and Alan M. Rugman (University of Reading, UK). The subsequent two volumes were dedicated to institution builders who are still very active in the field, namely Louis T. Wells (Harvard University, USA) and Rosalie Tung (Simon Fraser University, Canada). In the latter cases, these scholars were selected because their scholarly oeuvre represented an almost perfect fit with the corresponding research volume’s theme, respectively advances in IB research on emerging markets (with a focus on the ‘BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China)’ countries) and distance (with a focus on its cultural and institutional dimensions). The PIBR series aims to publish collections of papers on subject matter that is not necessarily considered ‘mainstream’ at the time of research, or that requires novel ways of approaching it. The selection of tribute volume awardees also signals the Editors’ appreciation for innovative, out-of-the-box thinkers in the IB research area.

Following this tradition, the present volume in the PIBR series also covers a relatively new area of research, namely the interaction between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the digital and information age. This includes, on the one hand, an account of the role that MNEs can have in shaping the new age. On the other hand, the ‘maturing’ of the Internet creates challenges as well as opportunities for established, emerging and new MNEs, often independently of company size or home country. This volume brings together creative contributions from mainstream IB scholars, and includes work from scholars in adjacent disciplines, such as economic geography, international relations and political science, strategic management and technology studies. IB as a scholarly discipline always faces a challenge when addressing major societal and technological developments; in particular, those that involve multilevel and multimethod research, and placed at the interface between company strategies and government regulation. Studying the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ is a prime example of such a challenge. IB studies that cover the interface between technology, regulatory regimes and business strategy in a rigorous fashion, demand that scholars combine qualitative and quantitative insights in a robust manner.

This is where the life-long contributions of Lorraine Eden deserve particular praise. She has contributed immensely to scholarly inquiry into novel and intellectually challenging IB phenomena, and this is the first reason for this tribute. Lorraine Eden is presently a Professor of Management and holds the Gina and Anthony Bahr Professor in Business at Texas A&M University (USA). She is also associated as a Faculty Member with the Bush School of Government and Public Service at the same institution. Her research interests lie, in her own words: ‘at the intersection of economics, international business and public policy’. Her current and past research interests have focused primarily on two areas: Transfer pricing (the pricing of transactions among related parties) and strategies of MNEs to cope with institutional distance, liability of foreignness and the challenges of ‘hot spots’ (e.g., conflict zones, corrupt economies, tax havens). Her books include Taxing Multinationals (1998), Multinationals in North America (1994), Retrospectives on Public Finance (1991), Multinationals and Transfer Pricing (1985, 2017) and The Economics of Transfer Pricing (2018). Lorraine Eden’s 170+ scholarly publications have earned more than 11,000 citations on Google Scholar. In the period 2005–2015, she ranked fourth as most productive scholar among Management faculty and the 13th most productive scholar among Business School faculty in terms of articles published in 24 ‘journals of distinction’. Her most influential publications (in terms of citations) cover four very different areas of research. These papers signal her broad scholarly interests and willingness to collaborate with other researchers: more than 3,500 citations for an AMJ paper on emerging economies (Hoskisson, Eden, Lau, & Wright, 2000), 1,400 citations for a JIBS paper on IB methods (Chang, Van Witteloostuijn, & Eden, 2010), and more than 500 citations for both a book chapter (Elsevier) contributing to the literature on distance and liability of foreignness (Eden & Miller, 2004), and for an AMR article on government corruption and MNE strategies (Rodriguez, Uhlenbruck, & Eden).

The second reason to pay tribute to Lorraine Eden is her life-long engagement in support of creating a vibrant, global disciplinary community of IB researchers. She has done this in many capacities. First, as an active participant in the annual meetings organised by the Academy of International Business (AIB), over a period spanning decades. She was elected as the AIB fellow as early as 2004, in part because of her lead role in stimulating female participation in the IB research community, for instance, by founding the Women in the Academy of International Business network. Second, as the editor-in-chief of JIBS, the top-ranked journal in the field of international business, whereby she consolidated the status of JIBS as a recognised ‘A’ level outlet in the broader management sciences. Third, as the 2017–2018 president of the AIB, a scholarly association in which she also held a Vice President position during the period 2000–2002. As the AIB President elect, she was instrumental in developing Codes of Ethics for the AIB Membership, the AIB Leadership and the AIB journals. These codes outline standards of professional and ethical conduct and procedures for handling violations thereof. In an increasingly complex and volatile world, IB scholars must abide by the most stringent possible norms of professional conduct and ethical behaviour, whereby criteria of scientific integrity are paramount. Lorraine Eden is owed a depth of gratitude for her trailblazing role in this discourse.

The third reason to pay tribute to Lorraine Eden is her unrelenting focus on the societal responsibilities of the IB teacher and scholar, whereby she has never shied away from addressing controversial areas of MNE involvement. At Texas A&M, she teaches courses on transfer pricing and MNEs. Her Transfer Pricing Aggies programme has trained more than 300 masters- and PhD-level students. Over 100 graduates have used this training as a platform to pursue transfer-pricing careers. More generally, she has been actively involved in establishing linkages between academia and society, by participating in a large number of high-level advisory committees and networks. As one example, in 2015, she acted as a member of the E15 Task Force on Trade and Investment, an expert task force within the E15 Initiative on Strengthening the Global Trade and Investment System for Sustainable Development. Particularly relevant for the topic of the present PIBR volume has been her recent (2014–2016) membership of the Research Advisory Network to the Global Commission on Internet Governance. This is a joint project of The Centre for International Governance Innovation and Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs), on the future of multistakeholder Internet governance. Her technical paper for the Task force (Eden, 2016) established clear linkages among digitisation, foreign direct investment and sustainable development. Lorraine Eden’s oeuvre of policy-oriented papers, written during the past 35 years, provides a wealth of genuine insight on the complexity of policy processes and the impact of public policy, and much of this insight remains as relevant today as when these pieces were first composed.

Lorraine Eden’s paper prepared for this volume (Chapter 1) shows in a very personal manner how her scholarship developed over the years and how she managed to relate her research to relevant societal themes and to her service to the wider IB community. We hope that Lorraine Eden’s account of her personal journey, which truly reflects the philosophy of ‘service above self’, may inspire the coming generation of IB scholars to follow in her footsteps.

The Editors,

Rob van Tulder, Alain Verbeke and Lucia Piscitello