CALL FOR PROPOSALS

COLLABORATIVE STRATEGIES:
NEW THINKING ON ALLIANCES, MERGERS AND
ACQUISITIONS

PROGRAM CHAIRS

Jaideep (Jay) Anand Esteban R. Brenes Octavio Martinez

Ohio State University INCAE Business School INCAE Business School

Inter-firm alliances, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) represent important means of how firms
grow, compete in markets and accumulate important resources and capabilities. Research in
Strategic Management in the last couple of decades on these phenomena has studied, both
theoretically and empirically, questions related to (i) under what conditions firms are likely to use
alliances or M&A, as well as (ii) under what conditions are they likely to be successful.
Consequently, as researchers, we have now accumulated a significant body of insightful
knowledge on these phenomenon based on a variety of theoretical perspectives and empirical
approaches.

Yet, there are many unaddressed and unanswered questions at many different levels of analysis
including the role of the national context or industry structure, strategic interaction among firms,
inter-firm resource redeployment and other strategies for value creation, and intra-firm structures
people, and processes. And new advances in theory and methods now available to researchers
in Strategic Management open the door to providing better answers to such unaddressed and
unanswered questions. The goal of this conference is to provide a forum to share insights from
the application of novel approaches in terms of theory, methods or context to achieve better
understanding of these phenomena.

The conference will be held in Costa Rica, a beautiful, hospitable and unique country. It is a
sanctuary of ecotourism with an incredibly high bio-diversity. Most importantly, it is home to some
of the happiest people in the world! During the conference, you will have the opportunity to visit a
coffee plantation and taste some of the most refined coffees in the world. Before or after the
conference, we hope that you will have the chance to visit Costa Ricas active volcanoes and
tropical rain forest, to spot for toucans, sloths and other exotic animals, to relax at thermal waters,
and to enjoy the beaches of the Caribbean and Pacific coasts.
The conference co-chairs invite submissions that broadly fit the conference theme, including papers with
theoretical, empirical and managerial contributions in the following tracks:

Track A: Role of Institutions & National Context

Track Chair: Gerald McDermott, University of South Carolina

This track will focus on the impact of the national institutional context on formation and success of alliances
and acquisitions. Relevant questions include the effects of formal and informal country institutions,
government-business relationships, family business and business groups on the formation and
performance of cross-border and domestic alliances and M&A. Across heterogeneous institutional
environments, the role of anti-trust practices, information asymmetry across potential partners and
institutional voids is also pertinent.

Track B: Role of Governance and Networks

Track Chair: Janet Bercovitz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This track will focus on emerging research themes related to contracts, governance, trust, reputation and
networks. For example, recent research is shedding more light on how partners, capabilities, and
governance are jointly determined. The co-existence of the need to cooperate in alliances with the need to
compete in the market has led to development of co-opetition as an emerging field. Research on alliance
and acquisition portfolios continues to make progress. On the theoretical side, researchers are also trying
to develop new insights by synthesizing different theoretical perspectives.

Track C: Sources of Economic Value in Alliances and Acquisitions

Track Chair: Gwendolyn Lee, University of Florida

This track will focus on how firms may create economic value in alliances and acquisitions based on
synergy, resource redeployment, market power and strategic interaction between firms. The bulk of
previous research has emphasized synergy based on economies of scale, scope and learning that provide
contemporaneous benefits to the firm, but resource redeployment may help create value by providing an
effective response to declining product markets or technological change. Further, industry and competition
based issues include the role of industry structure, growth/decline, and market power. Incompatible
incentives and information asymmetry among firms makes the role of strategic interaction among
competitors or among incumbents and potential entrants very pertinent.

Track D: Role of Intra-firm Routines, People and Structures

Track Chair: Carlos Rodriguez, INCAE Business School

The role of individuals and intra-firm routines, people and structures is often considered critical to the
success of inter-firm alliances and M&A yet we lack a good understanding of these. This track will focus on
how firms can create or destroy value in their strategies by following certain approaches at various stages
of alliances or acquisitions. For example, in order to achieve successful inter-organizational knowledge
replication and adaptation in alliances or M&A, what inter-firm structures or processes should be used?
How do we go beyond high level thinking to models and studies of micro-phenomena?

Track E: Technology and Innovation Strategies

Track Chair: Michael Leiblin, Ohio State University

This track will focus on firms effectively use their inter-firm alliance and M&A strategies for competing in
technological domains. New research related to technology strategy emphasizes not only the access to or
acquisition of critical complementary assets or attainment of critical mass, but also notes the important
nuances inherent in technology contexts characterized by digital platforms and complex ecosystems.

2
 Timeline:

May 1, 2017 Submission Deadline for Proposals

May 8, 2017 Co-Author Confirmation Deadline

Early July, 2017 Notification of Program Review Committee Decisions

Mid-October, 2017 Conference Program Available Online

December 14-16, 2017 SMS Special Conference Costa Rica

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES AND REQUIREMENTS

Proposals (5-7 pages, for paper and panel sessions)
relating to the conference theme are invited.
Only original, unpublished work is sought.
Deadline for Submission of Proposals: May 1, 2017

To learn more about the

SMS Special Conference Costa Rica and
to read the full Call for Proposals please go to:
costarica.strategicmanagement.net

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advancement of strategic management
The Strategic Management Society (SMS) is unique in bringing together the worlds of
reflective practice and thoughtful scholarship. The Society consists of nearly 3,000
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The Society is probably best known through the Strategic Management Journal (SMJ)
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Entrepreneurship Journal (SEJ) and in 2010 the Global Strategy Journal (GSJ). The
intent is for these quarterly publications to become Class A journals and to promote the
development and dissemination of advances in the field by maintaining the highest
standards of intellectual thought combined with practical relevance, just as their sister
publication SMJ has done for many years.

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