International business in an era of economic nationalism, populism and anti-globalization
A Paper Development Workshop Day
Aix-en-Provence, March 28th, 2019 – Dr. Thomas Hoerber kicked off this conference by an inaugural opening when after thanking the hosts for welcoming the EU-Asia Institute on the ESSCA campus of Aix-en-Provence for this first time. He took advantage of this moment to remind the academic goals and the outreach vocation of these research seminars. After quickly presenting the subject and the presenters of this session, he gave the floor to Alexandre Bohas. The latter put to the fore the paramount context of this meeting by pointing out how international business is today impacted by international politics. It constitutes a major change in world business but also a major opportunity to conduct inter-disciplinary researches including political science and international business scholars. Never have such research projects appeared so topical and relevant.
Anna Dimitrova and Alexandre Bohas presented the first paper, which was entitled “International business at a time of nationalism: Evidence with FDI in EU”. The two authors studied the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment and nationalism from an under-researched point of view. Taking place among the EU members-states, the study pinpointed the effect of rising nationalism in the public opinion on Foreign Direct Investment. In other words, nationalism was not taken as economic policies, the latter being reduced within the EU framework, but as a feeling appearing in the public opinion. Their research aim was to inform on the impact of political movements’ public opinion on international business. Their research question was stated as such: What are the consequences of current rising nationalism on the inward/outward FDI in EU member states? The first results of this research were encouraging since they showed a strong relationship between FDI and nationalism.
Then the floor was given to Dr. Lydia Kernevez who presented a paper entitled “Rising international business risk and Global value chains: the rational for offshoring”. Dr. Lydia Kernevez’s studies put the multiple dimensions of risk in the crucial domains of supply chains of multinational companies. Based on several data bases and strong theoretical underpinnings, she was underway to develop a ground-breaking research on risk and supply chains.
Finally, Dr. Viatcheslav Avioutskii presented a paper on the role of Geopolitics in international Business. Named “Geopolitics as an FDI determinant in the CEECs”, his paper stressed the crucial light that geopolitics could shed on international business studies. In his penetrating case, Dr. Viatcheslav Avioutskii showed how geopolitics determines FDI investments in CEECs.
These three researches are very promising. They are grounded in empirical research and theoretical literature in International business and political science.
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