| Role | Associate Professor of Economics |
| Institution | Sardar Patel Institute of Economic & Social Research (SPIESR), Ahmedabad |
| Tenure | January 2009 – March 2011 |
| Focus | Indian multinationals & emerging-market FDI · international research collaboration |
| Highlights | Co-edited The Rise of Indian Multinationals (Palgrave, 2010) · guest-edited an Emerging Multinationals special issue · 12 journal articles · founding convener of the SPIESR Working Paper series |
My two years at SPIESR were among the most research-intensive of my career. They coincided with the 2008–09 global financial crisis — a moment that tested the young multinationals emerging from India and other developing economies — and much of my work in this period set out to understand how those firms were faring, where they were investing, and what their rise meant for the countries that hosted them. It was also a period of unusually international collaboration, working with co-editors and co-authors across Europe, North America, and Asia.
Research leadership and international collaboration
Three efforts anchored the period:
An ICSSR research project. I initiated and co-directed (with Prof. Keshab Das) the ICSSR-funded study “Regional Patterns of Internationalization of Indian Firms: Learnings for Policy,” a joint SPIESR–GIDR project examining where and why Indian firms internationalise. The project carried over into my next post — it was completed at Central University of Karnataka.
A co-edited book with Palgrave Macmillan. The Rise of Indian Multinationals: Perspectives on Indian Outward Foreign Direct Investment (2010), edited with K. P. Sauvant, A. Chatterjee, and B. Harley, brought together leading scholarship on Indian outward FDI; I also co-wrote its opening chapter, “The Rise of Indian Multinational Enterprises: Revisiting Key Issues,” with Karl Sauvant. [Add link to the book’s post on this site.]
A guest-edited journal special issue. Emerging Multinationals: Home and Host Country Determinants and Outcomes — International Journal of Emerging Markets, 5(3/4), 2010 — guest-edited with Peter Gammeltoft and Andrea Goldstein.
Selected publications
Twelve peer-reviewed journal articles appeared during (or close to) this period:
| Year | Article | Journal |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Business Group Affiliation and Location of Indian Firms’ Foreign Acquisitions (with N. Singh) | J. of International Commerce, Economics and Policy, 2(1) |
| 2011 | On the Globalness of Emerging Multinationals: A Study of Indian MNEs (with R. Aggarwal) | Economia e politica industriale, 38(1) |
| 2011 | Emerging Multinationals: A Comparison of Chinese and Indian Outward FDI | Int. J. of Institutions and Economies, 3(1) |
| 2010 | Strategic Asset-seeking Activities of Emerging Multinationals | Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, 1(2) |
| 2010 | The Global Economic Crisis: Impact on Indian Outward Investment (with N. Singh) | Transnational Corporations, 19(1) |
| 2010 | Externally-oriented Small and Medium Enterprises in India (with K. Das) | Economics, Management, and Financial Markets, 5(3) |
| 2010 | Emerging Multinationals: Home and Host Country Determinants and Outcomes (with P. Gammeltoft & A. Goldstein) | Int. J. of Emerging Markets, 5(3/4) |
| 2009 | Indian FDI Falls in Global Economic Crisis | Transnational Corporations Review, 1(4) |
| 2009 | How Did Decoupled Become Coupled? India’s Miracle Growth Drops | Economics, Management, and Financial Markets, 4(3) |
| 2009 | South-South Investment in Infrastructure | Foreign Trade Review, 43(4) |
| 2009 | Outward FDI and Knowledge Flows: The Indian Automotive Sector (with N. Singh) | Int. J. of Institutions and Economies, 1(1) |
| 2008 | Rise of Indian Outward FDI: Implications for Host Developing Countries (with N. Singh) | Revista Economía: Teoría y Práctica, 29 |
Alongside these came four book chapters: “The Rise of Indian Multinational Enterprises: Revisiting Key Issues” (in the Palgrave volume above, 2010); “Emerging Multinationals from India and China: Origin, Impetus and Growth” (2010); “Multinationals from the Indian Software Industry” (Routledge, 2010); and “New Policy Regime and Small Pharmaceutical Firms in India” (Routledge, 2011).
Scholarly service and engagement
The period also involved a good deal of service to the wider research community. I refereed for eight international journals — among them Research Policy, Journal of International Management, Oxford Development Studies, Technovation, the International Journal of Institutions and Economies, and Columbia FDI Profiles — sat on the editorial board of Economics, Management and Financial Markets, and served on the scientific committee of the Copenhagen Conference on Emerging Multinationals. I also hosted and mentored a visiting doctoral candidate, Heather Taylor of Goethe University Frankfurt, whose work focused on Indian firms’ acquisitions in developed countries.
I presented at seven conferences and seminars over these years, including a keynote on regional factors in India’s industrial R&D at an international seminar convened by ISID, the Centre de Sciences Humaines, and the Centre for Research on Contemporary China (New Delhi, 2010), and talks at Hosei University (Tokyo, 2009), Shri Ram College of Commerce (Delhi, 2009), and the Madras School of Economics (Chennai, 2010).
Institutional development
As the founding Convener of the SPIESR Working Paper Committee, I did the groundwork for the institute’s working-paper series — setting up the submission and review process that gave SPIESR’s researchers a channel to circulate work in progress.
In reflection
My time at SPIESR was, above all, a period of sustained scholarship on emerging-market multinationals at exactly the moment the global economy was reshaping their prospects — work carried out through a wide web of international collaboration, and paired with the quieter task of building a research institution’s publishing infrastructure.
Related on this site
- Full academic profile — Who I Am
- The flagship outputs of this period: The Rise of Indian Multinationals (Palgrave, 2010) · Emerging Multinationals special issue
- The next chapter (where the ICSSR project was completed): Contributions at Central University of Karnataka
