Bjorn Ambos - The New Role of Regional Management

Bjrn Ambos is full professor and head of the Institute for International Marketing and Management at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) and academic director of the Master Program in International Management/CEMS. Ambos studied business administration at the University of Hamburg in Germany, and Florida State University in the United States. He earned a Dipl.-Kfm. and a Ph.D. in international management from the University of Hamburg and a PD (Habilitation) from WU. He previously held positions at the University of Edinburgh, WU and the University of Hamburg, before rejoining WU in 2006 as one of its youngest full professors. He has taught courses, or held visiting positions, in more than ten nations in Asia, the Americas and Europe.

Professor Ambos gained several years of industry experience in international management, working in Vietnam, Italy, Paris and New York. He has conducted research with or consulted with top management teams all over the world, including Austrian Research Centers Seibersdorf (ARCS), Astellas, Die Presse, EADS, Eli Lilly, Ford, France Telecom, Hutchison 3G, Honda, Jungheinrich, JPMorgan, LOreal, Nike, Olympus, Pfizer, Puma, Roland Berger, Royal Dutch Shell, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, SAP, Sequenom, Siemens, Solvay, Unilever, Telekom Austria, Thyssen Krupp, Volkswagen and Villeroy & Boch. He is the recipient of several awards for excellence in teaching and research.

Professor Amboss current research concerns global strategy, regional headquarters, knowledge management and innovation within multinational firms. He serves on the editorial board of the Strategic Management Journal and the board of the European International Business Academy. Ambos is a scientific advisor to the National Research Foundation of the United Arab Emirates and is currently serving his second term of a three-year appointment as an officer of the Global Strategy Interest Group at the Strategic Management Society.

His research has been published in European Business Forum, European Management Journal, Journal of International Management, Journal of World Business, International Business Review, International Journal of Technology Management, Management International Review, Strategic Journal of Marketing, Strategic Management Journal and Research Policy. The German business press recently ranked him as the most productive researcher in international management. He has presented papers and addresses at more than 70 universities and conferences in the last ten years.

Professor Schlegelmilch (MSc, PhD, DLitt) is dean of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) Executive Academy and professor of International Marketing and Management at WU and at Leeds University Business School. He is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and adjunct professor of International Business Studies at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management and at Kingston University, London, United Kingdom.

Prior to founding the Institute for International Marketing and Management at WU in 1997, he held tenured professorships at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, the University of Wales in Swansea and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. At Thunderbird, he headed the Marketing group and was director of the US-government-supported CIBER Institute for International Business Ethics. At the University of Wales, he held the British Rail Chair of Marketing, and at the University of Edinburgh, he was a lecturer of marketing and international business. During his career, he also held visiting appointments at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Cologne, the University of Miami in Florida and Thammasat University in Bangkok. He also worked for Deutsche Bank and Procter & Gamble in Germany.

Professor Schlegelmilch studied business administration at Cologne University of Applied Sciences and holds an M.Sc. degree and two doctorates (Ph.D. and D.Litt.) from the Manchester Business School. In terms of research, he has been recognized as one of the leading authors publishing in international marketing journals and has been listed in Whos Who in International Business Education and Research. Recently, he has also been ranked among the top 25 business professors in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in terms of lifetime publishing. His work focuses on a variety of topics in global marketing management and strategy. He has published more than 200 papers in conference proceedings and academic journals, such as the Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Business Ethics and Journal of World Business.

Professor Schlegelmilch has won various teaching and research awards and has taught in international marketing programs on six continents. He is a board member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Austria and has conducted executive education seminars and board-level workshops for a wide variety of major multinationals.

Professor Schlegelmilch was the first ever European editor-in-chief of the Journal of International Marketing and has served (or is serving) on the editorial boards of several leading academic journals, including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of International Business Studies, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Strategic Marketing, International Marketing Review, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, and Marketing-Zeitschrift fr Forschung und Praxis.

We owe gratitude to many friends, colleagues from academia, interview partners and funding organizations that helped us realize this project. First and foremost, the authors would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Austrian National Bank (OeNB). Without funding through its research initiative, the Jubilumsfonds, we would have been unable to conduct the extensive research study on which this book is based.

We also like to extend our appreciation and gratitude to the all the executives who shared their insights with us. In particular, we like to acknowledge the following individuals whose knowledge and experience has been most helpful in shaping our own understanding on regional strategies: Mr Aoki (Honda), Mr Alebeek (Nike), Mr Bauer (Puma), Dr Dobrocky (Boehringer Ingelheim), Dr Fibig (Pfizer), Mr Doerr (Boehringer Ingelheim), Mr Giles (Boehringer Ingelheim), Mr Grottenthaler (Boeringer Ingelheim), Mr Hoyt (Nike), Mr Hlse (Boehringer Ingelheim), Mr Hatanaka (Astellas), Mr Kaiser (Puma), Mr Kbele (Pfizer), Mr Kopp (Volkswagen), Mr Kasai (Nissan), Mr Katayanagi (Astellas), Mr Kozato (Canon), Mr Lichtinger (Pfizer), Mr Le-Brun (McDonalds), Mr Masuda (Honda), Mr Morgen (British Embassy Tokyo), Mr Nishiwaki (Asics), Mr Ohtani (Astellas), Dr Prschmann, (Boehringer Ingelheim), Mr Ruppe (Nike), Mr Schmid (SAP), Mr Sumita (Honda), Mr Senn (Volkswagen), Mr Slater (Ford), Mr Schirmer, (Ford), Mr Suzuki (Toyota), Dr Schleef (Volkswagen), Dr Tinhof (Astellas), Mr Unbehaun (Asiscs) and Mr Vivaldi (Unicredit).

We are also greatly indebted to our research assistants, who helped us to develop the case studies. Specifically, we would like to thank Barbara Brenner, Lisa Grber, Ursula Haas-Kotzegger, Phillip Nell, Philipp Obenaus, Nina Prll, Ilona Szcs and Gina Weinzierl for their contributions. A special thanks also to Ursula Zeller-Nrnberger and Hanife lk, who help us formatting the manuscript, as well as Virginia Thorp and Paul Milner of Palgrave Macmillan for their support throughout the project.

Finally, we would like to thank our families for their understanding when we missed out on joint activities because we were busy with research for this book.