Timeline

• October 1, 2026: Submission deadline

Digital technologies are increasingly shaping the conduct of individuals, businesses, and societies. Particularly disruptive digital technologies include artificial intelligence, the internet of things, additive manufacturing, robotics, business analytics, cloud-based computing, and blockchain. Although digital technologies may appear geographically unanchored, they are physically situated in specific locations and connected through infrastructure such as underwater cables. The spatial embeddedness of these infrastructures has become intertwined with geopolitical competition and strategic rivalry, with control over critical assets such as undersea cables, semiconductor production hubs, cloud service locations, and digital standards increasingly contested between leading powers, notably the US and China.

These geographically rooted infrastructures shape MNE strategy and create location-specific opportunities and risks. Digital tools can enhance visibility into global value chains and enable new forms of cross-border coordination. However, complete automation and contracting skilled labor in developing countries may have unintended implications. The accelerated digitalization of the workplace has reduced barriers for firms to develop fully functioning digital workplaces, allowing many office-based jobs to be offshored to less costly locations. Greater interconnection also heightens exposure to cyber intrusions, surveillance, and politically motivated disruptions to data flows, placing digital security and control firmly on the geopolitical agenda.

The transformative effects of digital technologies in different regions and countries are multifaceted, entailing both opportunities and challenges. These effects can influence the locations of businesses, institutional configurations, industrial leadership, cross-border competitive dynamics, and the global structure of value chains and the digitalized economy. As digital infrastructures and capabilities are deeply embedded in national security strategies and geoeconomic competition, international business increasingly unfolds within a fragmented and politically contested digital landscape.

Emerging economies such as China and India have taken extraordinary technological leads, presenting a starkly different picture from the conventional view that technological leadership resided predominantly in North America and Europe. Governments and policy makers in emerging economies have been catalysts of rapid digital technology development. Many governments have created large markets for local firms through procurement and rolled out programs to increase adoption of new technology. China has emerged as a global leader through government collaboration with technology firms on AI commercialization. India has implemented a make in India policy with strong technological components. Malaysia has formed digital free trade zones. These national initiatives represent responses to geopolitical pressures and strategic positioning in techno-nationalist competition.

Various emerging economies have introduced policies for stimulating startups, R&D, and global competitiveness in digital technologies. Malaysia's mydigital blueprint envisions a digitally driven, high-income nation with investments in data centers, cloud, and innovation ecosystems. Indonesia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh have developed national programs to expand digital access, strengthen innovation ecosystems, and support firm-level digital capability building. Such initiatives shape how these countries align with or hedge between competing global digital ecosystems and standards, influencing their room for maneuver in international negotiations.

Although major digital initiatives have resulted in shifts in technological dominance, many emerging economies continue to find themselves at the peripheries of the global digital transformation process. This may have long-lasting strategic and competitive consequences. While digitization can potentially increase multidirectional investment and information flows, it can also promote de-globalization. The establishment of decentralized regional manufacturing centers or patterns of dominance by digital leaders such as China and the US may cement the global digital divide irreversibly.

Questions about changing spatial patterns of production, investments, and division of labor due to digitization are currently much discussed in the context of global value chains. However, it remains unclear whether digital technology in emerging economies will generate and thrive through network externalities or lead to greater concentration or dispersed operations. It is also unclear how digitalization will affect current investment patterns and whether emerging economies will benefit or become further marginalized as a result of technological and business transformations and accompanying geopolitical contestation.

At the regional level, digital business activities play an increasingly central role in shaping competitive positioning, innovation pathways, and regional integration. Digitization offers opportunities for SMEs through increased ICT-enabled connectivity and creates employment through gig-work. There is co-development and co-evolution between institutional, technological, and economic environments, which can provide advantages to countries not locked into existing technological paradigms. However, strategic and governance-related challenges have emerged, including changing geographies of production due to digitalization, which has accelerated reshoring and automation-driven job losses in labor-intensive manufacturing sectors.

The widening digital divide between regions affects how countries and firms participate in global value chains. The rise of platform-mediated gig work raises concerns about precarious labor conditions, algorithmic control, and transfer of power from traditional employers to digital intermediaries. The absence of appropriate regulations to safeguard digital transactions and growing political control efforts can lead to distinct realms of digital governance with implications for economic activities. For MNEs, regulatory divergence complicates cross-border data governance, increases compliance and coordination costs, and constrains ability to integrate operations across subsidiaries and value chain partners.

These developments contribute to the emergence of fragmented digital spheres of influence in which different groups of states and firms compete to set standards, control data, and shape digital market evolution. This fundamentally alters the strategic landscape of international business. Given the transformational nature of digital technology on the world economy, it is imperative to consider these technologies as a business and policy challenge to established IB theories developed in an analog era of a different global business environment.

Potential topics

• Digital platforms and MNE innovation strategy
• Digital technology and MNE subsidiaries
• Digital infrastructure and firm internationalization
• Digital ecosystems and MNEs
• Digital sovereignty and MNE strategy
• Role of proximity in MNE innovation in emerging markets
• Impact of digital transformation on MNE subsidiary roles and structures
• Digital capabilities and internationalization pathways
• Navigation of competing digital standards and regulatory regimes
• Geopolitical tensions and MNE location decisions
• Data governance and regulatory compliance in fragmented digital landscapes
• Platform-mediated business models and global value chains
• Technological leadership in emerging economies
• Regional digital initiatives and their implications for MNEs

Timeline

• January 7, 2026: Opening date for manuscripts submissions
• November 30, 2026: Closing date for manuscripts submission