Escalating geopolitical tensions have become a defining feature of the contemporary international business environment. Recent scholarship has examined how firms cope with geopolitical uncertainty, focusing on organizational resilience, employee motivation in hostile contexts, and strategic deployment of human resources under conditions of conflict and instability. However, this work has largely overlooked one of the most profound consequences of geopolitical crises: large-scale, crisis-induced migration and the resulting global reconfiguration of human capital.

The wars and confrontations of the past five years, including conflicts involving Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, and Iran and the United States, have triggered unprecedented movements of people across borders. Geopolitical migration fundamentally differs from economic migration. It is often sudden, unplanned, and driven by acute security, political, or environmental threats rather than long-term opportunity seeking. As populations flee conflict zones, countries of origin experience significant human capital losses, while host countries confront challenges and opportunities associated with absorbing inflows of displaced and often highly skilled individuals. Geopolitical crises accelerate the global redistribution and consolidation of human capital, with long-lasting implications for firms, labor markets, and national development trajectories.

International business and related literatures have increasingly addressed migration from macro, meso, and micro perspectives, examining economic consequences, patterns of brain drain and brain gain, return migration, human capital accumulation, and immigrant adjustment across diverse groups. Important contributions have also explored state policies, diaspora dynamics, human rights, and shifting global migration routes. However, this body of work has predominantly focused on migration that unfolds under relatively stable institutional conditions. Much less is known about migration triggered by geopolitical crises characterized by uncertainty, institutional disruption, and limited capacity for strategic planning by governments, firms, and individuals.

Firms are directly affected by abrupt changes in the availability, composition, and mobility of human capital, both in crisis-affected home countries and in recipient economies. Yet, firm-level theorizing and empirical evidence on how organizations respond to, shape, and are transformed by geopolitical crisis-induced migration remain underdeveloped. International business scholarship has paid surprisingly limited attention to how migration driven by war and geopolitical disruption reshapes firm strategies, human resource practices, and competitive outcomes.

This Special Issue seeks to address this gap by placing firms at the center of analysis and examining migration as a contextual, crisis-specific phenomenon. We invite contributions that explore how firms cope with human capital outflows, leverage inflows of displaced talent, adapt human resource management and organizational practices, and interact with states and societies under conditions of geopolitical instability. By integrating insights on geopolitics, migration, and firm behavior, this Special Issue aims to advance a more nuanced and timely understanding of how business operates in an era of persistent conflict and forced mobility.

Potential topics

• Geopolitics as setting for migration - Do different geopolitical crises create unique migration contexts and consequences for organizations? How does the emergence of geopolitical migrants shape global migration flows, migration state policies, and firms' acquisition strategies? Do different geopolitical crises create different firm-level challenges and diverse organizational responses? How does geopolitical migration reshape the institutional environment for local and multinational companies? How do local businesses receiving geopolitical migrants tackle enormous migration flows resulting from wars and sudden instabilities? What capabilities are critical for companies to overcome migration challenges and create advantages with geopolitical migrants as a talent pool?
• Geopolitical migrants and diaspora groups - How may local organizations benefit from diverse geopolitical migrant groups? How do geopolitical migrants differ from other migrant groups in employment motives and cultural adjustment capabilities? What are the effects of diaspora expansion in host countries due to geopolitical migration? How have diasporas remained connected to home contexts and what effects emerge for home countries from geopolitical talent outflows? Can brain drain be turned into brain gain if migrants remain engaged in home country processes? To what extent and under what institutional conditions may geopolitical migrants reshape global and local labor markets?
• Migration restrictions and implications for local and international business players - Are migration restriction policies beneficial to local firms? Do nationalistic frictions that restrict migration protect economic interests or create barriers to human capital accumulation? How does institutional context influence organizational cultures and policies affecting migrant integration? How does perception of geopolitical conflict fairness influence state migration policies and migrant labor market inclusion? To what extent do migration restriction policies stimulate recirculation of geopolitical migrants? How does populism influence migration policies and state initiatives? How are different political regimes and varieties of capitalism connected to migration restrictions?
• Location choices and directions of migration flows - Does geographical proximity moderate geopolitical migration? How do historical relations between countries determine geopolitical migration flows and affect adjustment? How do multinational companies decide internationalization strategies considering migration flows? How do geopolitical migrants choose destinations? Which country-specific characteristics are perceived as attractive pull factors for geopolitical migrants?

Timeline

• January 6, 2027: Opening date for manuscripts submissions
• August 31, 2027: Closing date for manuscripts submission

William Y. Degbey, University of Vaasa

Maria Pajuoja, University of Vaasa

Matti Pihlajamaa, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Baniyelme D. Zoogah, McMaster University

Waymond Rodgers, University of Texas

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as the frontier of computational advancements that references human intelligence in addressing ever more complex decision-making problems. A key development is Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI), particularly Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, which can process and generate human-like language, extract insights, and produce creative outputs. Gen AI has enormous potential to significantly boost national economies. Its widespread adoption could increase GDP in the EU region by +8% (EUR 1.2–1.4 trillion) over the next ten years, provided innovators are equipped with the necessary skills and capabilities.

Yet, adoption remains uneven. For instance, European countries average a 54 percent adoption rate, below the global average of 61 percent. This uneven adoption is compounded by the global competition for skilled talent and persistent workforce shortages, particularly in digital and AI-related fields. McKinsey estimates that up to 12 million job transitions may be required due to AI, underscoring the urgent need for reskilling and entrepreneurial innovation.

This Special Issue aims to advance empirical understanding of how, when, and why humans engage with Gen AI in innovation. The focus is on Gen AI as an innovation enabler, inviting submissions to explore innovation processes, human capital resources, and organizational capabilities. The call welcomes single- and multi-level studies that examine Gen AI's role in shaping innovation within and across organizations and encourages contributions that take an interdisciplinary perspective. Submissions should address managers' pressing challenges in finding new ways to support and improve innovation by investigating how managers can effectively enhance how employees and executives use Gen AI.

Technological advancements have made Gen AI more accessible and affordable across industries. Gen AI's impacts are not limited to what organizations innovate but also change how they innovate. Gen AI can be used to replace existing innovation processes, reinforce them, or reveal unforeseen ways of developing new products and services. It may assist in the identification of opportunities, idea generation, and evaluation of innovation potential, reshaping the front-end of innovation processes, and enable more rapid experimentation and improved customer understanding. Yet, experiences and use cases remain evolving and fragmented, creating uncertainty for managers.

Furthermore, Gen AI transforms innovation processes at multiple interrelated levels, whereas existing research has mostly examined them in isolation. Consequently, this Special Issue encourages a multi-level perspective, including individual, team, and organizational level processes.

Microfoundations research shows that innovation is fundamentally driven by people, not organizations, since it is individuals who identify opportunities, generate solutions, and implement them. To understand how Gen AI enhances innovation outcomes, such as faster development of better-quality products, services, and processes, it is necessary to examine how individual innovators use Gen AI, what influences its use, and what results emerge from these AI-augmented efforts. Team-level dynamics are equally important, as teams have become the core unit of modern organizations. Gen AI can support team innovation by sparking dynamic discussions and promoting diverse thinking in design processes, supporting ethical decision-making, and by helping overcome challenges in group decision-making. Finally, scholars have called for more research on how leadership can support AI adoption and digital transformation. Leaders must build new capabilities as AI implementation is often challenging, human-AI interaction may involve complications, and a new range of ethical concerns must be considered.

The rapid evolution of Gen AI demands not only technical adaptation but also new approaches to manage the associated processes, tensions, and frustrations. As Gen AI profoundly alters work design, skill requirements, and professional identities, employees face both new opportunities and psychological challenges. To ensure they can develop the AI-related skills needed for the evolving roles, organizational and managerial support mechanisms have to be developed. Yet, there is limited understanding of the organizational capabilities required to implement this change successfully. Effective support may involve building Gen AI literacy, fostering experimentation, and promoting continuous learning.

At its best, AI is strategically deployed to generate business value and competitive advantage, but without targeted support, organizations risk de-skilling, employee resistance, and ineffective adoption that undermines innovation goals. Organizational practices for managing innovation are also being challenged by Gen AI, especially in terms of ethical governance. While the benefits of Gen AI in innovation are promising, ethical concerns remain underexplored. Key principles include respect for intellectual property, truthfulness, robustness, recognition of malicious uses, sociocultural responsibility, and human-centric design.

Overall, the Special Issue seeks papers that provide empirical contributions on the evolving role of Gen AI in innovation to deepen psychological and social insights into management practices to support, improve, and offer practical guidance to help managers navigate Gen AI adoption and integration. The listed themes are neither exhaustive nor exclusive; authors are encouraged to explore other themes aligned with the aims of the Special Issue. The journal welcomes contributions from scholars of innovation, organizational behavior, management, HR, strategy, technology, and practitioners.

Potential topics

• How is Gen AI being used in innovation processes at different levels?
• How do organizations apply Gen AI to replace, reinforce, or reveal innovation activities, and what are the resulting effects on, for example, process efficiency, novelty, and responsiveness to market needs?
• How do varied patterns of Gen AI use across process phases and organizational levels influence the dynamics and management of innovation processes?
• How do individual innovators use Gen AI in their work, what influences this usage, and what are the measurable outcomes of AI-augmented innovation efforts in terms of product, service, or process quality and speed?
• In what ways does Gen AI influence innovation team dynamics, including collaboration, resilience, and decision-making, particularly in virtual or hybrid team environments?
• What psychological and behavioral effects emerge from using Gen AI in innovation settings, such as changes in employee engagement, collaboration dynamics, or perceptions of autonomy?
• How do managerial competencies influence the successful implementation of Gen AI in organizational innovation efforts?
• What organizational capabilities need to be developed to successfully implement, integrate, and support the use of Gen AI in innovation efforts?
• How are organizations supporting continuous learning and skill development for employees working with Gen AI, and what mechanisms are most effective in enabling the strategic use of Gen AI?
• What ethical challenges do organizations face when deploying Gen AI in innovation activities, and how are they addressing issues such as intellectual property, transparency, and sociocultural responsibility?

Timeline

• January 15, 2026: Opening date for manuscripts submissions
• August 31, 2026: Closing date for manuscripts submission