Broadening our Sights: Advancing Interdisciplinary Thinking on Global Migration

Abstract

This panel symposium addresses several topics in the All Academy Theme (AAT), the International Management Division, and other divisions, all through the lens of global migration. The purpose is to engage a group of expert panelists with different interdisciplinary backgrounds in a formal, moderated, interactive discussion of key aspects of migration that are germane to management and international business (IB) but have yet to be integrated within mainstream scholarship in these fields. The main topics tackled will include: 1) migrants as bi-cultural boundary spanners in global organizational contexts, and their impact on firms’ approach to strategy and organization; 2) the changing balance of location and firm-specific human capital advantages; and 3) the implications of migration for cross-border activities of firms and ethno-cultural diversity. In addition, we will examine the extent to which management and IB scholarship can be enriched by recognizing and incorporating knowledge on migration generated in allied disciplines with a sharper focus on the topic - namely political science, political economy, sociology, and anthropology. By surfacing, synthesizing, and connecting arguments taken from different disciplinary perspectives, we will show how and why the global movement of migrants has altered the nature of firm competitiveness with implications for the governance choices of multinational enterprises. Our main contribution will lie in breaking self-imposed dichotomies and mindsets that, inadvertently or otherwise, can stand in the way of creating a truly interdisciplinary synthesis of migration as a global phenomenon with real implications for management and IB scholarship at different levels.