LBS faculty wins JIBS Decade Award

London Business School’s Dr Ioannis Ioannou and his co-author, the Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration George Serafeim, have had conferred on them the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) Decade Award for 2022.

The 2012 JIBS’ article by Ioannou and Serafeim, What drives corporate social performance? The role of nation-level institutions receives the Decade Award through the sponsorship of Palgrave Macmillan, and is designed to recognise the most influential paper published in the Journal of International Business Studies ten years prior to the award. It will be officially presented to the recipients at the annual Academy of International Business (AIB) conference which is to be held in Miami, July 6-9 2022.

In recommending the award-winning article, the committee noted that, “This article is the most cited article published in JIBS in 2012.” It stands out for several other reasons as well, and the committee made the following observations:

“First, it is topical and timely, addressing a critical issue of concern to the broad global society on environmental and climate protection and more aggressive and conscious actions by MNEs to tackle this issue in the present day. Second, this study is thought-provoking, establishing a macro (country-level) and micro (firmlevel) link that crosses and integrates multiple disciplines such as institutional economics, political science, cultural research, and institutional theory. Third, this study is theoretically sound, with robust and exceptional theory development. The article draws on appropriate theoretical lenses from various fields, which reminds us that research needs to be skillfully and systematically grounded in expository theoretical perspectives, including theory from outside IB. “Fourth, this article is methodologically rigorous, offering excellent research design, longitudinal data, multilevel analysis, and comparative insights. It uses a sample of firms from 42 countries spanning seven years, and constructs an annual composite corporate social performance (CSP) index for each firm based on social and environmental metrics.

“Finally, this study is exemplary, exhibiting ways of IB research to contribute to both our scholarly community and the business/public society. This article unveils the mechanisms through which nation-level institutions within national business systems affect MNEs’ corporate social performance.”

In order to be considered for the JIBS Decade Award, an article must be one of the five most cited articles published in JIBS for the year being considered. This year’s Selection Committee members were Yadong Luo (Chair, University of Miami, USA), the current AIB Program Chair Andrew Delios (National University of Singapore, Singapore), and past AIB Program Chair Gary Knight (Willamette University, USA). JIBS Editor-in-Chief Alain Verbeke was an ex officio, non-voting committee member.

About the Journal of International Business Studies Decade Award

The practice of issuing an annual Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) Decade Award began at the 1996 Annual Conference of the Academy of International Business (AIB), the Executive Board of the AIB endorses the award.

The award is designed to recognise the most influential paper published in the Journal of International Business Studies volume one decade prior and is presented at the AIB Annual Conference. One measure of influence is the degree to which candidate articles have been cited in the ten years following their publication. In order to be considered for this award, a paper must be included among the five most cited papers published in the JIBS Volume of that year.

The Selection Committee includes the current and previous AIB Program Chairs, a chair chosen by the JIBS Editor-in-Chief, and the JIBS Editor-in-Chief (ex officio).

A special session is held at the Annual Conference, during which the winner makes a retrospective presentation of their work, as well as some comments on where the field has progressed and where it should go next.