Overview
Globalization and digitalization have reshaped global supply chain operations (Alicke et al. 2023). In particular, geopolitical disruptions such as the China–U.S. trade war, Brexit, and Middle East tensions have triggered the reconfiguration of global supply chains for many global companies (Bednarski et al. 2023; Henrich et al. 2022). The Russia–Ukraine war has further accelerated the decoupling between the U.S. and China as well as between the West and Russia. In this rapidly changing and uncertain environment, Apple, for example, has considered reshoring some of its manufacturing back to the United States. Other global companies are also considering a “China + 1” or “China + 2” strategy for their contract manufacturing operations. Such strategies allow international marketing managers to keep some of their manufacturing in China while establishing new production locations, often with the same suppliers, in countries such as Vietnam, India, or Mexico, where political risks and labor costs are more manageable (Vertinsky et al. 2023). Other external shocks and natural disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic and earthquakes have disrupted firms’ supply chain operations around the world (Panwar, Pinkse, and De Marchi 2022). For example, demand for in-person restaurant dining has decreased, whereas demand for food delivery and home-based consumption has greatly increased (Jeong et al. 2023), forcing multinationals like KFC and McDonalds to modify their operations in host markets. Under such market changes, firms need to explore new ways of organizing their global supply chains with respect to factors like product diversity and cooperation with more partners in the supply chains and ecosystems around the world (Davis et al. 2023; Henrich et al. 2022). These challenges highlight the critical need for international marketing managers to improve planning and forecasting for their global supply chains to be more agile and resilient.
Furthermore, shareholders and stakeholders have been demanding greater accountability from companies, pressing international marketing managers to take responsibility for the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts of their global supply chain and manufacturing activities and to ensure that they’re doing business in an ethical, sustainable, and fair fashion (Henrich et al. 2022). While marketing’s approach to this new expectation varies by country, the market now expects the same standards to be enforced throughout a company’s global supply chain. Accordingly, the stakeholders of global brands, who often hold strong expectations regarding appropriate ESG-related behaviors, have begun scrutinizing not only the firms selling the branded products worldwide but also their entire global supply chains (Mateska et al. 2023).
In the meantime, the emergence of advanced technologies such as AI and Industry 4.0 bring about great opportunities for international marketing managers to coordinate and configure their global supply chains automatically (Alicke et al. 2023; Ejaz and Hegedűs 2023; Lee et al. 2023). For example, Unilever uses an AI application and service to find alternative supply sources on short notice. Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held conglomerates in the U.S., is leveraging an AI tool to optimize its supplier base. Industry 4.0 can also help international marketing managers enhance their resilience to cope with global supply chain disruptions (Tan 2023). Further, cloud computing and blockchain technologies also help integrate a firm’s supply chain partners; enhance the transparency, efficiency, and timeliness of global supply chain activities; and enable international marketing managers to cope with communication barriers in the market. However, there is a potential downside: When there are unanticipated natural disasters or geopolitical tensions (Henrich et al. 2022), minimizing potential interruptions in such optimized, digitalized, and complex global supply networks may pose major challenges. Thus, managing global supply chains in the era of digitalization emerges as a critical and challenging task for international marketing managers.
Despite these emerging challenges and opportunities for international marketing managers, academic research on these areas is limited. Most academic work on supply chain management has focused on domestic context and overlooks how different formal and informal institutions would shape firms’ global supply chain strategies (Usui, Kotabe, and Murray 2017). Specifically, little research attention has been paid to how global supply chains can be managed to improve the flow of supplies from the perspective of international marketing, how firms can cope with emerging managerial challenges, or how international marketing managers can take advantage of new opportunities in their global supply chains. To fill this gap, there is an urgent need to develop new theories, modify existing theories, and determine how firms can manage their global supply chains in the face of emerging trends of globalization and digitalization.
Suggested Topics for Submissions
We encourage research on any aspect of global supply chain management from the perspective of international marketing at all levels of analysis, such as the individual employee or entrepreneur, firms, supply chains, platforms as well as ecosystems. Different types of firms (e.g., multinationals, regionals, local importers/exporters, suppliers, key account customers, born-globals, virtual vs. physical firms) and different institutional (e.g., formal, informal, government, trading blocs) and regional settings are encouraged. We call for more interdisciplinary and foundational research to expand the knowledge base of global supply chains in international marketing. We invite all types of research—qualitative, behavioral, and empirical—and encourage researchers to identify multiple sources of data and use multiple methods for this special issue. Conceptual papers and critical reviews are also welcome.
Suggested topics include, but are not restricted to:
- How can international marketing managers effectively control the governance mechanism and, thus, manage relationships with different global supply chain participants and members in the ecosystem across different countries to mitigate emerging geopolitical disruptions?
- How can international marketing managers leverage emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, machine learning, virtual reality, and big data for global supply chain management? What is the role of those emerging technologies for international marketing managers in coping with the challenges in the global supply chain activities?
- What is the role of digitalization (e.g., EDI, internet-based platforms, virtual meetings, social networks) in global supply chains in seeking efficiency, timeliness, as well as agility for international marketing managers?
- What is the role of blockchain and decentralized technologies in global supply chains, and how do they affect interorganizational relationships and efficiency in global supply chains?
- What marketing strategies, resources, and capabilities are needed for different types of firms to manage global supply chains given recent technological, geopolitical and other changes?
- What is the role of different institutional contexts in global supply chain management strategies?
- Can informal institutions such as culture and norms in different countries affect global supply chain management strategies?
- How do ESG initiatives and requirements shape firms’ global supply chain management? How can firms develop strategies and resources to meet ESG requirements for their global supply chains?
- How do suppliers or contract manufacturers manage their global account relationships across different countries in the uncertain global market environment?
- How does marketing–supply chain integration affect firms’ global supply chain management given recent changes? Has the role of marketing changed in global supply chain management—and if so, how?
- What are the impacts and implications of advanced technology and technology-based platforms on a firm’s globalization of its supply chain activities?
- What is the impact of digital technologies in offshoring, onshoring, and reshoring of a firm’s manufacturing activities?
- What are the global, regional, and local market implications of reshoring of a firm’s manufacturing activities for international marketing managers and for managing global supply chains?
Submission Process
All manuscripts will be reviewed as a cohort for this special issue of the Journal of International Marketing. All submissions will go through the Journal of International Marketing’s double-anonymized review and follow standard norms and processes. Submissions must be made via the journal’s ScholarOne site, with author guidelines available here. For any queries, feel free to reach out to the special issue editors.
Manuscripts must be submitted between December 1, 2024 and March 1, 2025.
Guest Editors
Daekwan Kim (dkim@business.fsu.edu) is Spencer-Feheley MBA Professor in the College of Business at Florida State University and a Visiting Eminent Scholar at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, Korea. His research interests include the impact of IT and Industry 4.0 on interfirm relationships and relational performance, marketing/international marketing strategies, and international buyer–seller relationships. His research has appeared in the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, Decision Sciences Journal, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of World Business, Management International Review, International Marketing Review, International Business Review, and others. He is currently a Senior Editor of International Business Review and an Associate Editor of Decision Sciences Journal, and serving on the editorial boards of Journal of International Business Studies, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of International Marketing, and Thunderbird International Business Review.
Ruey-Jer “Bryan” Jean (bryanjean@ntu.edu.tw) is Distinguished Professor of International Business at the Department of International Business, National Taiwan University, Taipei. He received his PhD from University of Manchester, UK. His research focuses on interorganizational relationship management and international new ventures in digital and data-rich environments, with a focus on emerging markets. He has published widely in peer-reviewed academic journals, including the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of World Business, Management International Review, International Business Review, International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Research, Journal of International Management, and Journal of International Marketing. He is currently an Associate Editor of International Marketing Review and serving on the editorial boards of Journal of Business Research, International Business Review, and Asia Pacific Journal of Management.
S. Tamer Cavusgil (stcavusgil@gsu.edu) is Regents’ Professor and Fuller E. Callaway Professorial Chair and Executive Director, CIBER, Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University. A trustee of Sabanci University in Istanbul, Türkiye. Tamer authored more than several dozen books and some 200 refereed journal articles. He mentored over 40 doctoral students at Michigan State and Georgia State who have become accomplished educators around the world. Tamer holds an honorary doctorate from The University of Hasselt and the University of Southern Denmark, in addition to being named as an Honorary Professor by Atilim University in Ankara, Türkiye. He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of International Business. Tamer holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Türkiye. He earned his MBA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin.
Ayşegül Özsomer (aozsomer@ku.edu.tr) Ayşegül Özsomer is Professor of Marketing at Koç University, Istanbul, Türkiye. She specializes in global marketing, branding, emerging markets and the role of marketing in tough economic times. She has published in top scholarly journals including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Journal of International Marketing. Ayşegül received several research awards including the 2011 Gerald Hills Best Paper Award for ten-year impact on entrepreneurship research, the 2013 Cavusgil Award for her paper investigating the interplay between global and local brands, and the 2023 Cavusgil Award for her paper on marketing agility. She has held visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA, and Harvard University. Her co-authored book, The New Emerging Market Multinationals: Four Strategies for Disrupting Markets and the Competition (McGraw Hill) was selected the best strategy book by Business+Strategy.
References
Alicke, Knut, Tacy Foster, Katharina Hauck, and Vera Trautwein (2023), “Tech and Regionalization Bolster Supply Chains, but Complacency Looms,” McKinsey (November 3), https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/tech-and-regionalization-bolster-supply-chains-but-complacency-looms.
Bednarski, Lukasz, Samuel Roscoe, Constantin Blome, and Martin C. Schleper (2023), “Geopolitical Disruptions in Global Supply Chains: A State-of-the-Art Literature Review,” Production Planning & Control, https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2023.2286283.
Davis, Cameron, Ben Safran, Rachel Schaff, and Lauren Yayboke (2023), “Building Innovation Ecosystems: Accelerating Tech Hub Growth,” McKinsey (February 28), https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/building-innovation-ecosystems-accelerating-tech-hub-growth.
Ejaz, Muhammad R. and Dániel Hegedűs (2023), “Designing a Conceptual Framework for Industry 4.0 Technologies to Enable Circular Economy Ecosystem,” Managing Global Transitions, 21 (2), 121–48.
Henrich, Jan, Jason Li, Carolina Mazuera, and Fernando Perez (2022), “Future-Proofing the Supply Chain,” McKinsey (June 14), https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/future-proofing-the-supply-chain.
Jeong, Insik, Ruey-Jer Jean, Daekwan Kim, and Saeed Samiee (2023), “Managing Disruptive External Forces in International Marketing,” International Marketing Review, 40 (5), 936–56.
Lee, Jeoung Y., Daekwan Kim, Byungchul Choi, and Alfredo Jiménez (2023), “Early Evidence on How Industry 4.0 Reshapes MNEs’ Global Value Chains: The Role of Value Creation Versus Value Capturing by Headquarters and Foreign Subsidiaries,” Journal of International Business Studies, 54 (4), 599–630.
Mateska, Ivana, Christian Busse, Andrew P. Kach, and Stephan M. Wagner (2023), “Sustainability-Related Transgressions in Global Supply Chains: When Do Legitimacy Spillovers Hurt Buying Firms the Most?” Journal of Supply Chain Management, 59 (4), 42–78.
Panwar, Rajat, Jonatan Pinkse, and Valentina De Marchi (2022), “The Future of Global Supply Chains in a Post-COVID-19 World,” California Management Review, 64 (2), 5–23.
Tan, Hooi (2023), “It’s Time to Join the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” SME Media (June 22), https://www.advancedmanufacturing.org/smart-manufacturing/its-time-to-join-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/article_035bc430-059d-11ef-b638-d772541cc117.html.
Usui, Tetsuya, Masaaki Kotabe, and Janet Y. Murray (2017), “A Dynamic Process of Building Global Supply Chain Competence by New Ventures: The Case of Uniqlo,” Journal of International Marketing, 25 (3), 1–20.
Vertinsky, Ilan, Yingqiu Kuang, Dongsheng Zhou, and Victor Cui (2023), “The Political Economy and Dynamics of Bifurcated World Governance and the Decoupling of Value Chains: An Alternative Perspective,” Journal of International Business Studies, 54 (7), 1351–77.
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