Papers by Jonathan V Beaverstock
Social Science Research Network, Mar 1, 2009
Understanding the internationalization of professional services like advertising, architecture, a... more Understanding the internationalization of professional services like advertising, architecture, accounting, consulting and legal services continues to attract considerable attention in academic and policy circles. Research in geography and management studies has emphasized the different organizational strategies adopted by firms as they seek to develop and maintain a competitive position within an increasingly global economy. In this article we develop a new strand in this literature by adopting a cultural economy approach to argue that an important, yet comparatively neglected, aspect of the internationalization strategies of transnational professional service firms is the role of certain 'iconic individuals' and 'brand leaders' in influencing the practice of internationalization. Drawing on empirical research into the burgeoning European executive search (headhunting) industry we identify a cadre of such individuals and brand leaders that act as resources other firms leverage when internationalizing. This highlights the importance of a cultural economy perspective in theories of the internationalization of professional services and its value in moving discussions beyond purely economic analyses of competitive advantage. The internationalization strategies of professional services have been of longstanding interest to academics and policy makers (see for example
International travel remains at the heart of international business" (Welch and Worm, 2005, 284).... more International travel remains at the heart of international business" (Welch and Worm, 2005, 284). "Non-expatriates [Business travellers] … tend to be the forgotten group, yet for many firms they may comprise the largest contingent of employees involved in international business" (Dowling and Welch, 2004, 128) The role of international business travel and the functionality of the business traveller have been persistently overlooked in a broad sweep of literature which embraces international human resource management, international business, the sociology of work and labour, mobilities, transient migration and travel, for example. Welch and Worm (2005, 284) find such a dearth in the literatures "somewhat curious", because they argue that the nature of the contemporary globalising firm, characterised by geographical dispersion, global production divisions and complex sub-contracting/supplier networks, provides the impetus and need for physical travel, especially if the corporate employee wishes to be an effective executive, manager or sales person. As we reach the end of the first decade of the Twenty-First Century, business travel remains an important mode of production in firms with, amongst other things, travel being used to: attend firm meetings or training sessions; visit clients to close deals, pitch for business or provide product support; attend trade fairs/conferences; and visit sub-contractors and suppliers to monitor quality control or negotiate new business. For many workers, business travel is now a normal everyday reality of the working day or night, involving what can be best described as persistent or mundane travel, which can have many downsides like separation from the family,
of economic activities . They emphasise that, within the changing contours of the world economy, ... more of economic activities . They emphasise that, within the changing contours of the world economy, such networks integrate firms, industries and national economies . Therefore, GPN analysis adopts the network rather than the chain as the central unit of analysis, positing that firms are part of wider networks of globalised production . In this chapter, we refer to these two bodies of literature combined as the GVC/GPN literature. Whilst the GVC/GPN literature places the chain or network at the heart of the analysis, International Business (IB) scholars have traditionally been interested in firms, and particularly multinational enterprises (MNEs) . The fragmentation of economic activities and functional integration have deeply transformed the way MNEs structure and manage productive and commercial activities on a global scale (de Marchi, di . In contrast to traditional forms of vertical integration associated with internationalisation, MNEs have more recently opted to extend their organisational boundaries to form equity and non-equity based relationships with other actors operating along the value chain, such as suppliers, distributors, agents and partners . Therefore, in order to keep pace with the rapidly shifting world economy, de Marchi, di Maria and Ponte (2014) urge for continual insights on MNEs' changing organisational forms, internationalisation paths between outsourcing and offshoring, and approaches to knowledge management within organisations and networks. The emergence of these networked multinationals has also changed the process of value creation, and power and knowledge dynamics between MNEs and other actors in value chains . For this reason, a broader range of GVC/GPN actors beyond MNEs have started to gain analytical and empirical importance. The increasing interdependencies between MNEs and other actors have set the groundwork for analysing inter-firm and non-firm relationships, governance and power dynamics and the distribution of gains throughout GPNs. However, such foci of analysis have so far received insufficient attention in IB and, we would argue, can no longer be overlooked (cf. . Not surprisingly then, a number of IB scholars have noted potential incoherence between theoretical progress made in IB and the practical impact of recent processes of economic globalisation (Storper
Wiley eBooks, Dec 12, 2016
The persistence and reproduction of unfree labor challenges our understanding of labor relations ... more The persistence and reproduction of unfree labor challenges our understanding of labor relations under capitalism. Some of those concerned with this phenomenon label it "new slavery," but this implies that it had ended and has since returned. An analysis which instead takes into account different mechanisms by which unfreedom can be imposed in labor relations reveals otherwise. Unfreedom in labor relations, understood as an exercise of power, has taken a variety of forms which vary over time and space. This entry discusses the definitions of unfree labor, forced labor, new slavery and trafficking. It reviews debates around each of these within policy-oriented literature, the new slavery school of thought, Marxian perspectives and a new critical studies of unfree labor school of thought. It notes that there is room for labor geography to bring additional insights to the study of unfree labor and unfreedom in labor relations.
Routledge eBooks, Apr 15, 2016
Management International Review, Sep 4, 2018
This study's objective is to compare cluster economies and diseconomies for multinational enterpr... more This study's objective is to compare cluster economies and diseconomies for multinational enterprises (MNEs) and uninational enterprises (UNEs) within the London financial services cluster. In contrast to the implicit assumption of the cluster participation literature that the economies and diseconomies of clusters are valued similarly by all firms, we find that economies relating to social capital and labour market pooling are equally important to MNEs and UNEs, economies relating to local competition and diseconomies relating to congestion costs are more important to MNEs than to UNEs, and economies relating to the reputational effects of locating in a world-leading cluster and access to specialised suppliers are more important to UNEs than to MNEs. That MNEs and UNEs do not experience cluster economies and diseconomies in the same way indicates that both cluster participation theory and international business theory need augmentation to recognise that cluster incumbents benefit and suffer from cluster membership differently.
Highly skilled international labour migration is a pre-eminent process for world city growth, com... more Highly skilled international labour migration is a pre-eminent process for world city growth, competitiveness and network building (Friedmann, 1986; Beaverstock and Boardwell, 2000). The burgeoning economies of world cities have created unprecedented conditions for the demand of highly skilled labour in both private and public sector employment (Sassen, 2006). For individuals, world cities have become the 'global elevators' for career development and wealth creation (Beaverstock, 2002). Over the last three decades, the ...
Social Science Research Network, Oct 15, 2015
This article explores the obligations of presence behind work-related mobility for academics in i... more This article explores the obligations of presence behind work-related mobility for academics in internationalizing higher education systems. By further developing John Urry's concept of 'meetingness', the article reveals how academics depend on corporeal and virtual mobility to create and maintain a networked professional life outside their own institution, which is crucial in the context of changing work conditions. Our insights are drawn from original qualitative research (42 interviews) in a Flemish and Danish context. The data reveal obligations of presence associated with an interrelated mix of functionality, and the construction of dense and sparse social networks that together support career success and work at the frontiers of academic knowledge. Despite the now well-recognised costs of corporeal mobility, obligations of presence result in virtual and corporeal mobility coexisting, rather than the former substituting for the latter. Virtual mobility is mainly used when conflicting obligations of presence exist, and as a means of sustaining networks over time given the processual nature of meetingness, rather than as a means to reduce levels of corporeal mobility.
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2021
During the 2010s, collateralized loan obligations rapidly became a trillion-dollar industry, mirr... more During the 2010s, collateralized loan obligations rapidly became a trillion-dollar industry, mirroring the growth profile and peak value of its cousin—collateralized debt obligations—in the 2000s. Yet, despite similarities in product form and growth trajectory, surprisingly little is known about how these markets evolved spatially and relationally. This paper fills that knowledge gap by asking two questions: how did each network adapt to achieve scale at speed across different jurisdictions; and to what extent does the spatial and relational organization of today's collateralized loan obligation structuration network, mirror that of collateralized debt obligations pre-crisis? To answer those questions, we draw on the global financial networks approach, developing our own concept of the networked product to explore the agentic qualities of collateralized debt obligations and collateralized loan obligations—specifically how their technical and regulatory “needs” shape the roles an...
This study has two objectives. Firstly, to compare cluster benefits, costs, and processes in two ... more This study has two objectives. Firstly, to compare cluster benefits, costs, and processes in two different highly productive clusters holding city location constant: financial services and media in London. To what extent are cluster forces similar and different in these two clusters? The second objective is to compare cluster benefits, costs, and processes for MNEs and UNEs within the two clusters. To what extent are cluster forces similar and different for MNEs and UNEs? Via exploratory factor analysis and logit analysis of derived factor scores, we find that similar factors are at work in each cluster: the factors are largely generic and not industry/cluster specific. We also find that some factors are similarly valued by MNEs and UNEs, some are valued more by MNEs, and some are valued more by UNEs. Importantly, factors falling into each category varies by cluster. So, multinationality matters and what matters is industry/cluster specific.
The Regional Review, 1992
Recent years have been characterised by the increasing encroachment into policy and academic deba... more Recent years have been characterised by the increasing encroachment into policy and academic debates of discourses describing knowledge and weightless economies and an associated 'war for talent'. In this paper we argue that these current discourses and their description of 'talent' and the challenge of finding it fail to do full justice to the complexities of contemporary elite markets. We argue that the rise of executive search firms, headhunters, as labour market intermediaries and their tactics for defining and managing contemporary elite labour recruitment practices is too often ignored. We show that executive search firms control elite labour recruitment processes through two forms of power-relation: one in the labour management process where relations between clients and executive search firms are structured by power resources constructed over time; and one in the labour market itself where definitions of talent are promulgated by search firms, thus determining who does and does not classify as a talented individual and who is admitted to the networks that provide access to elite executive positions. Building on insights from interviews with headhunters in Europe we reveal the strategies producing these positions of power. This leads us to suggest that geographers need to pay more attention to the role of discourses in the construction of power relations and the role of geography as a resource that is empowering but also disempowering.
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Papers by Jonathan V Beaverstock