Introduction from the Editors

Citation

Dorrenbacher, C. and Roberts, J. (2012), "Introduction from the Editors", Critical Perspectives on International Business, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib.2012.29008baa.001

Introduction from the Editors

Article Type: Introduction from the Editors From: critical perspectives on international business, Volume 8, Issue 2

Welcome to the second issue of critical perspectives on international business (CPoIB) for 2012. We are very pleased to introduce a set of exciting articles that critically engage with the field of international business (IB) while displaying high political relevance and academic rigor.

There are many aspects in the field of IB that deserve political attention, not only by politicians, government officials and campaigners but also by the academics in the field. Recently, Mike W. Peng, Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, USA, and certainly one of the most prolific authors in the contemporary IB field highlighted such an aspect. In an article in AIB insights, a publication of the Academy of International Business for short topical, stimulating and provocative pieces, he claimed that IB scholars need to show social responsibility (Peng, 2011, p. 8). The motivation behind this claim was media reports suggesting that there is a “Chinese threat”, in other words that emerging Multinational Corporations (MNC) from China intent to buy up the world. Demonstrating that such claims do not match empirical reality, but rather fuel protectionist anti-Chinese sentiments in the US, he argues that IB scholars need to intervene and take political action because resulting trade conflicts would undermine trust among nations and make war a less costly alternative. Peng concludes: “the ultimate social responsibility of IB Scholars is to promote world peace by enhancing the trade and investment links in the world” (p. 10)

While we certainly agree to the first part of his statement we doubt that world peace is always enhanced by trade and investment links. This at least is the sad message conveyed by Chris J. Ayres paper on “The international trade in conflict minerals: Coltan”. First conceived as a review of the documentary film “Blood in the Mobile”, currently showing in cinemas (Poulsen, 2010), the piece developed into a position paper as its author took the opportunity to combine his eleven years personal experience in central Africa (as a former U.N. attorney in Rwanda and a director of a humanitarian NGO) with his current academic work. The paper explicates the harm to humanity that is caused by the mining of Coltan in the Democratic Republic of Congo, encompassing, life-threatening working conditions, child labour and military violence. It also deals with the social responsibility of the cell phone industry (and other industries using Coltan) which despite knowing for more than ten years about the inhuman conditions of its mining still cannot assure that they do not source Coltan from the incriminated mines. The paper closes with suggestions as to how governments, industry, but also individual users of mobile phones (us all) can contribute to make an end to the humanitarian problems associated with the mining of Coltan in Africa.

With these suggestions, Chris Ayres is exactly doing what another paper in this issue is asking for, namely to give a realist answer to what corporate social responsibility (CSR) means in contested spaces. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples, the paper by Paul Sanders entitled “Is CSR cognizant of the conflictuality of Globalization? A realist critique” argues that the prevalent “code and compliance approach” to CSR is insufficient and idealist when exposed to the more conflict ridden context of emerging and developing markets. Sanders claims that in such contexts CSR policies need to find appropriate answers to situations of duress that emerge systematically. As an example he refers to the situation in South Africa under Apartheid: How should MNCs behave? Was remaining justified despite it involving “dirty hands issues”, or was it preferable not to collaborate at all? Sanders argues that in such situations skilful leadership based on Machiavellian emergency ethics is a more realist alternative than rule formulation and compliance. As a consequence, he claims that Business Schools need to caution future mangers against the paucity of rules and compliance based CSR policies and to properly educate them in geopolitical realities and political ethics.

Political conflicts inside MNCs are the core theme of Geny Piotti’s paper “An institutional-cognitive perspective on headquarters-subsidiary conflicts: the case of German companies in China”. This paper adds to the literature by showing that conflicts between headquarters and subsidiary managers might emerge on the basis of the false expectations headquarters managers have about the reality in host countries. The paper further investigates how such false expectations are generated in strong public discourses. Referring to the case of German investments in China the paper found that – in line with the associated public discourse – the headquarters managers interviewed were euphoric about investing in China and severely underestimated associated challenges. Sticking to the view that “everyone is successful in China” when problems occurred at the subsidiaries then led to conflicts that undermined trust in headquarters-subsidiary relationships.

The issue opens with Susanne Blazejewski’s paper entitled “Betwixt or beyond the lines of conflict? Biculturalism as situated identity in multinational corporations”, which also refers to the inner workings of MNCs. In her contribution, Blazejewski challenges the widely held assumption that bicultural actors are born boundary spanners and conflict mediators in MNCs. Against the notion that bicultural actors are always able and willing to switch between or transcend multiple cultural and/or organizational frames due to their dual identity, the paper develops a situated approach to biculturalism that provides for a greater variety of bicultural actors’ identity management strategies depending on, for instance, the identity repertoire available to them or the perceived situation at hand. This also opens room for a more realist view of the conflicts associated with dual identity in MNCs. Following Blazejewski the situated enactment of dual identity does not automatically dissolve conflict as suggested by the literature so far, but actually might increase, intensify or even re-direct the lines of conflict.

The papers presented in this issue are accompanied by Gregory Schwartz’s review of Simon Pirani’s recent book on “Change in Putin’s Russia: Power, Money, People”, which highlights the role of Western capital in contemporary Russia. We hope that you will enjoy reading this issue of CPoIB and that it will encourage critical discussion of the many social and political issues that are connected to international business activity. There is much to do. On the same day as this introduction is finalized the Mobile world Congress, the world largest trade show for the mobile phone industry is taking pace in Barcelona. Issues of CSR, in particular the sourcing of Coltan from Congo and other critical themes are not part of the official programme for the 60,000 people attending the conference.

Christoph Dörrenbächer, Joanne Roberts