Managing Complex Cross-Border Collaborative Projects: Tamer Cavusgil Interviews Four Managers Experienced in Doing It

Managing complex cross-border collaborative projects (CCBC) is an important emerging research field relevant to both the theory and practice of international business (IB). Yet, as compared to the growing need for professionals in firms involved in such high stake multi-party projects, meagre attention has been given in IB education and literature to the associated managerial challenges involved in such new forms of organization. More specifically, given scant empirically corroborated insights, what are the key problems IB scholars and practitioners could address in developing a research agenda on CCBCs that is both managerially relevant and theoretically rigorous? This conversation is one between researchers with experience of working with practitioners, and some practitioners very experienced in managing CCBCs. In a public conference session chaired by Volker Mahnke, with an audience of practitioners and researchers, Tamer Cavusgil and Volker explored some of the salient problems managers face, and pinpointed rewarding research avenues for tackling the challenges in organizing multinational projects such as CCBCs. This is a lightly edited transcript of that interview.