Following successful previous ENEF meetings organized in Sheffield, Rotterdam, Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Cambridge, Paris, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Bologna, Madrid, Manchester, Toulouse, Turin, Pisa and Brighton, we are pleased to announce that the 16th ENEF meeting will be held in Vienna at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO).
The theme of this year’s meeting reflects core themes of ENEF and the long-standing tradition of research on competitiveness, industrial dynamics and international trade at WIFO. The interplay between new digital technologies and value chains shapes much of the observed globalization of production structures. Recently, the emergence of new players (esp. China) and new technologies (robotisation and digitalisation) have raised questions about the implications of technological change. These concern firm strategies, employment, productivity, market concentration, and industrial dynamics in general. A wide variety of approaches and concepts are necessary to understand the complex relationship between industrial dynamics and the strategies of firms embedded in value chains. These may include the role of trade, industry characteristics, firm capabilities, institutional frameworks and policy interventions.
In keeping with previous ENEF workshops, we welcome submissions from all areas of the economics of the firm, as well as relevant contributions from management, organisation science and political economy. The workshop will focus on empirical, theoretical and policy analysis of topics that include, but are not limited to:
- Innovation and the international division of labour and tasks;
- Off- and reshoring of production and the organisation of global value chains;
- Productivity, superstar firms and reallocation processes;
- Value chain strategies at the firm level;
- Complexity, comparative advantage and firm strategies
- The role of exporting and importing activities for industrial dynamics;
- The economics and politics of strategic investment policies;
- Business surveys and firm behaviour over the business cycle;
- Knowledge, diversification, and firm performance.
