Language, culture and boundary-spanning: pushing the frontiers of research on global learning and innovation

Building an integrated global strategy for ongoing growth and renewal across markets which are geographically remote and have differing native languages and cultures is undoubtedly harder than classical scholars of business strategy have cared to understand or admit. While our cumulative knowledge of the role of organizational learning in internationalization is considerable, it has generally been seen as knowledge transmitted from the home-organizational base to subsidiaries abroad. As such, current theories take little account of the capacity of the organizations to reverse the one-way vector of learning emanating from headquarters in order to learn endogenously, as it were, from knowledge resources available at the periphery and throughout its global reach. A major reason why theory has not advanced further in documenting and thus realizing the mechanisms by which firms can learn from their global footprint is that the methodologies used have been ineffective as they tend to take a \"bird's eye\" view of phenomena when what is needed is an 'up-close' and contextually-grounded approach. In this keynote speech, Professor Mary-Yoko Brannen will discuss new avenues for research methods that facilitate the understanding of complex, micro level contextually embedded phenomena where research settings are rife with multilevel cultural interactions. Integrating current research on the multifaceted nature of language used in global organizations and the boundary-spanning skillsets that bi- and multi-cultural individuals bring to today's workforce, Professor Brannen will discuss new methods for researchers as well as practitioners to positively influence global learning and innovation outcomes. Mary Yoko Brannen is the Jarislowsky East Asia (Japan) Chair at the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives (CAPI) and Professor of International Business at the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and serves as Deputy Editor of the Journal of International Business. She received her M.B.A. with emphasis in International Business and Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior with a minor in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley. She has taught at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, the Lucas Graduate School of Business at San Jose State University, the Haas Business School at the University of California at Berkeley, Smith College, and Stanford University in the United States; Keio Business School in Tokyo, Japan, and Fudan University in Shanghai, China. Professor Brannen's expertise in cross-cultural management is evident in her research, consulting, teaching, and personal background. Born and raised in Japan, having studied in France and Spain, and having worked as a cross-cultural consultant for over 25 years to various Fortune 100 companies, she brings a multi-faceted, deep knowledge of today's complex cultural business environment. Her consulting specialty is in helping multinational firms realize their global strategic initiatives by aligning, integrating and deploying critical organizational resources. Professor Brannen's current research projects include research on knowledge sharing across distance and differentiated contexts, directing a global think tank focusing on biculturals and people of mixed cultural origins as the new workplace demographic, and developing strategic ethnography as a method by which global companies can realize sustainable competitive advantage.