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We are pleased to announce the First Workshop on Global Firms (2025), to be held at the IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca, Italy, on December 18-19, 2025.
Global firms have long leveraged their international reach to secure competitive advantages. Their production networks span national borders, and they often play a leading role in structuring global value chains. Yet one critical dimension of multinational activity remains insufficiently explored: the organization of R&D and knowledge creation.
Today, global firms account for the majority of worldwide R&D investment. However, their role in shaping technological trajectories, most notably in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), has received limited attention. This workshop aims to advance our understanding of how multinational enterprises organize innovation across borders and what this implies for the real economy.
Key questions include:
- What is the optimal organization of R&D within and across countries?
- How does participation in global value chains affect innovation?
- What are the consequences for domestic firms and national innovation systems?
- Has the pandemic and recent geopolitical conflict reshaped global firms’ location choices?
- What role do global firms play in the development of AI?
- Which trade and industrial policies should guide the future?
By bringing together senior and junior scholars, practitioners, and policymakers, this workshop seeks to foster dialogue at the frontier of research on multinational enterprises, innovation, and policy.
Keynote speakers: Peter Egger (ETH Zurich), Daria Taglioni (World Bank)
Please submit your contribution to globalfirms.knowledgediffusion@gmail.com by October 20, 2025
Notification of Acceptance: October 31, 2025
Papers or extended abstracts should be submitted in PDF format. Please include an abstract (max. 250 words) at the beginning of your submission. Submit your paper: globalfirms.knowledgediffusion@gmail.com
Scientific Committee: Armando Rungi (IMT School), Farid Toubal (Paris Dauphine University), Marianna Marino (IMT School), Gianluca Santoni (Paris School of Economics), Kenan Huremovic (IMT School), Noemi Walczak (IMT School), Giang Vu Le (IMT School)
Venue: The First workshop on Global Firms - 2025 will be held at the IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca, in the heart of Tuscany, Italy. The IMT School is an historical campus provides a unique setting for academic exchange and collaboration. We look forward to your contributions and participation in what promises to be an exciting event. For inquiries, please contact: [Insert contact email]
This event is sponsored by the PRIN 22 project: Unprecedented shocks to G-local value chains and the labor market - funded by the European Union - Next Generation EU, M4C2 - I.1.1, CUP D53D23006740006.
Piazza San Francesco 19
55100 Lucca , Italia
