Belt and Road Initiative, globalization and institutional changes : implications for firms in Asia

Research on Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is rising but far from complete. This special issue (SI) aims to enhance our understanding of how firms in Asia and beyond strategically respond to the BRI and what new theories and investigations are needed to better elucidate this new environment. In this editorial, we present a brief description of BRI, a review of related studies in the international business (IB) domain, a summary of the articles included in the SI and their contributions to the study of BRI, and an agenda for future research. We suggest that more attention should be given to examination of organizational heterogeneity under the BRI theme. In particular, there exists a variety of players like the governments of the host countries, non-government institutions, firms with different ownership structures, managers with different backgrounds, and their idiosyncratic characteristics should be incorporated in BRI studies. Moreover, future studies should find fine-grained ways to theorize and operationalize the policy effects of BRI. We call for further investigation of the consequences of BRI, including but not limiting to different aspects of IB activities, innovation, entrepreneurship, and corporate social responsibility.