The creation and diffusion of international business research

“W(h)ither U.S. Hegemony in International Business Research?” by Grigorios Livanis and Michael Geringer, is an excellent effort to encompass the growth of international business (IB) scholarly research worldwide. This commentary examines the implicit assumptions and models of their analysis, showing that IB models are useful in explaining the scholarly growth of IB.     

Mapping international business and international business policy research: Intellectual structure and research trends

This paper analyzes the core international business (IB) areas covered by ten IB-focused journals to date using 13,937 documents reflecting more than 300 years of combined publication history. Using bibliometric and citation analysis, it provides a systematic understanding of the current IB landscape, explicates the relevance of the future of IB research and depicts trends in this research field with emerging prevalent themes identified. The strongest themes across IB journals are performance, perspective and emerging economies/MNEs, shared strongly across UK/Europe, US and Asia-based journals. Our findings report on the prevalent research field, economy and geography, the latter analyzing the impact of author numbers and distribution, and thus, scale effects. Within this context, sole authorships are largely replaced by co-authorships, yet often on national level. We further limited the study to IB policy and found the focus centers on key themes of foreign business attraction, transnational governance and IB promotion.     

The use of multinomial choice analysis in international business research

Many strategic decisions made by firms involve a choice among several discrete alternatives. International Business (IB) scholars are often interested in modelling the factors that potentially influence these (multinomial) choices: these factors might include not only characteristics of the firms making the choices but also attributes of the alternative choices. This paper provides a succinct and intuitive introduction to the possible applications of multinomial choice models in IB research. We briefly outline the theory behind discrete choice modelling, and then explain how multinomial choice models may be estimated (including how the datasets need to be formatted) and how the significance of the coefficient estimates as well as the diagnostic statistics may be tested and interpreted.     

Twenty-five years of business systems research and lessons for international business studies

Since 1992, the national business systems (NBS) approach has been increasingly used to analyse not only firm characteristics, structures and strategies within NBS, but also the nature of international business and its interactions with both national and transnational institutions. In reviewing 25 years of NBS literature, we heed calls in IB journals urging researchers to use NBS notions and findings in IB research. Our systematic review of 96 articles analyses the patterns and contributions of NBS literature, revealing four thematic junctures: (1) comparative business systems, (2) firm internationalisation and the management/organisation inside MNCs, (3) the role of internationalisation in the development of organisational capabilities and innovation and (4) the emergence of transnational communities in and across firms and societies. Themes are described in terms of (a) the research questions (RQ) they focus on, (b) how NBS approach investigates the RQ and what are the major findings, (c) how IB frames and approaches the same RQ, (d) how does the NBS approach extend the perspectives of IB and (e) what are the problems faced by NBS in terms of developing further insights into the RQ. Our review contributes to the recent endeavour of IB research to institutionalism, encouraging a productive dialogue between IB and NBS research.     

The domain of international business: Futures and future relevance of international business

Using data generated by a global Delphi study involving international business (IB) scholars and practitioners, this article reflects on the core and domain of a discipline that, on one side, has to deal with increasing competition from related disciplines, which internationalize their research focus, and, on the other side, is trying to develop conceptual knowledge to explain ever more complex international phenomena. Generating a multilevel framework of important issues for IB leads to propositions, which may widen the focus of the discipline to go beyond the firm, which, comparing IB to related disciplines, can provide pathways that maintain IB highly relevant for most diverse communities affected by international business. ©2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A review of research methodologies in international business

What is common practice in international business (IB) research methodology? To address this question, we surveyed 1,296 empirical articles published in six leading international business journals from 1992 to 2003. The study uncovers state-of-the-art approaches in research methodologies in IB in terms of five major aspects: data collection methods, sample sources including sampled countries and subjects, sampling methods, sample sizes, and response rates. The results indicate that (1) mail questionnaire surveys dominate empirical research, (2) 60.9% of the studies use a one-country sample (88.9% from western countries), (3) 33.7% of the studies are based upon sample frames provided by third parties, and (4) the median sample size is 180 with an average response rate of 40.1%. Suggestions and recommendations are also provided to improve the methodological rigor of IB research.     

Trends in international business,thought, and literature: The past and future of political analysis for international business

The literature on political risks (and opportunities) in international business has expanded far beyond its initial preoccupation with expropriation and instability in “third world,” developing countries. The literature has thus become more concerned with other types of government policies and with political conditions in “first world” and “second world” countries as well. In those respects, the literature has developed analytically and become of more widespread relevance to managerial issues in international business. This article reviews the topical coverage of the political risk literature of international business, and in addition it considers key analytical issues concerning the levels of analysis, theoretical content, and analytical methods that have been evident, as well as those that have been neglected. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Cross-national research and international business: An interdisciplinary path

Comparative cross-national research is among the oldest approaches of scientific inquiry in the social sciences. We investigate the foundations of published works in cross-national research (CNR) in international business (IB), sociology, and psychology with an eye on leveraging their rich traditions for future IB research. Our approach aims to contribute and address repeated calls for taking an interdisciplinary approach in IB. We examined published CNR in 106 scholarly journals and identified 817 articles with 51,738 citations in IB, 477 works with 30,017 citations in sociology, and 835 articles with 54,519 citations in psychology. We use metric multidimensional scaling to examine the co-citation data for each field and identify knowledge and approaches commonplace in sociology and psychology to propose future research paths in IB. In particular multilevel analysis, which is scarcely used in IB, offers the potential of unfolding new dimensions within the field. Based on the emergent results from our MDS solutions, we recommend multiple future paths for CNR, particularly with respect to IB relationships, market entry, and related domains.     

Contextualizing international business research: Enhancing rigor and relevance

Context differentiates international business (IB) from traditional Business research. Along with many IB scholars, we argue that context should be much more adequately emphasized in IB research. Location differences are commonly ignored; complexity and polycomplexity--and other levels of analysis issues--are rarely acknowledged; and the relevance of models and theory developed in Western contexts is not adequately questioned or explored. This paper suggests contextualization guidelines for scholars to enhance the rigor of their research and to make their IB research more relevant for practitioners. In conclusion we suggest solutions for closing rigor and relevance gaps in IB research by enhancing contextualization.     

Interactive visualization for research contextualization in international business

We respond to calls for advances in the contextualization of international business (IB) research by introducing interactive visualization as a methodology for generating contextual insights during the exploratory phases of IB research projects. We suggest that applying interactive visualization early on improves contextualization by means of simultaneous dynamic representations of various phenomena and their respective properties and relationships, even for phenomena that have been widely researched before, like in the cases of international joint ventures and MNE foreign direct investment. The goal of this introduction is to make interactive visualization more accessible to IB scholars.     

Explaining the formation of international new ventures: The limits of theories from international business research

International new ventures (INVs) represent a growing and important type of start-up. An INV is defined as a business organization that, from inception, seeks to derive significant competitive advantage from the use of resources and the sale of outputs in multiple countries (Oviatt and McDougall 1994). Their increasing prevalence and important role in international competition indicates a need for greater understanding of these new ventures (Oviatt and McDougall 1994).Logitech, as described in a case study by Alahuhta (1990), is a vivid example of an INV. Its founders were from two different countries and had a global vision for the company from its inception. The venture, which produces peripheral devices for personal computers, established headquarters in both Switzerland and the U.S. Manufacturing and R&D were split between the U.S. and Switzerland, and then quickly spread to Taiwan and Ireland. The venture's first commercial contract was with a Japanese company.Using 24 case studies of INVs, we found that their formation process is not explained by existing theories from the field of international business. Specifically, neither monopolistic advantage theory, product cycle theory, stage theory of internationalization, oligopolistic reaction theory, nor internalization theory can explain the formation process of INVs. These theories fail because they assume that firms become international long after they have been formed, and they therefore highlight large, mature firms. They also focus too much on the firm level and largely ignore the individual and small group level of analysis (i.e., the entrepreneur and his or her network of business alliances).We propose that an explanation for the formation process of INVs must answer three questions: (1) who are the founders of INVs? (2) why do these entrepreneurs choose to compete internationally rather than just in their home countries? and (3) what form do their international business activities take?Who are the founders of INVs? We argue that founders of INVs are individuals who see opportunities from establishing ventures that operate across national borders. They are “alert” to the possibilities of combining resources from different national markets because of the competencies (networks, knowledge, and background) that they have developed from their earlier activities. Following the logic of the resource-based view of the firm, we argue that the possession of these competencies is not matched by other entrepreneurs. Only the entrepreneur possessing these competencies is able to combine a particular set of resources across national borders and form a given INV.Why do these entrepreneurs choose to compete internationally rather than just in their home countries? The founders of INVs recognize they must create international business competencies from the time of venture formation. Otherwise, the venture may become path-dependent on the development of domestic competencies and the entrepreneur will find it difficult to change strategic direction when international expansion eventually becomes necessary. As the founder of one INV explained, “The advantage of starting internationally is that you establish an international spirit from the very beginning” (Mamis 1989:38).What form do their international business activities take? Founders of INVs prefer to use hybrid structures (i.e., strategic alliances and networks) for their international activities as a way to overcome the usual poverty of resources at the time of start-up.This study has important implications for the practice of management. In financing decisions relating to INVs, venture capitalists and other venture financiers should look for entrepreneurs who have a global vision, international business competence, and an established international network. When entrepreneurs start INVs they should create hybrid structures to preserve scarce resources. Finally, given the path-dependence of competence development, founders of new ventures should consider whether establishing a domestic new venture with plans to later internationalize will be as successful a strategy as establishing a new venture that is international from inception.     

The selection,use, and reporting of control variables in international business research: A review and recommendations

This study explores the selection, use, and reporting of control variables in studies published in the leading international business (IB) research journals. We review a sample of 246 empirical studies published in the top five IB journals over the period 2012–2015 with particular emphasis on selection, use, and reporting of controls. Approximately 83% of studies included only half of what we consider Minimum Standard of Practice with regards to controls, whereas only 38% of the studies met the 75% threshold. We provide recommendations on how to effectively identify, use and report controls in IB studies.     

Context and contextualization: The extended case method in qualitative international business research

This paper advances the extended case method (ECM), a powerful context sensitive case-based research strategy that is underutilized in international business (IB). Demonstrating how the ECM offers an alternative to established case-based methods, we show how the method's core postulate of ‘outward extension’ opens new opportunities for designing, conducting, and theorizing case research suited to the contextual novelty of IB. We propose an analytical pathway to provide practical guidance on how to implement and design for contextualized explanation, examining recent studies on international practice transfer to illustrate the choices, directions and redirections made possible by extending out – i.e., contextualizing.     

Corruption in international business: A review and research agenda

We systematically reviewed the literature on corruption in international business (137 articles) for the last 17 years between 1992 and 2019. Additionally, we identified seven research streams in this growing literature: (1) the legislation against corruption, (2) the determinants of corruption, (3) combating corruption, 4) the effect of corruption on firms, (5) the political environment and corruption, (6) corruption as a challenge to existing theories of management, and (7) the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment and trade. Based on this review, we recommend that strong international laws are needed to minimize the negative impact of corruption on international business. Firms must also consider corruption when formulating strategies to increase operational efficiency and performance. Finally, corruption challenges some key assumptions of existing theories of management. Scholars need to test and expand these existing theories by considering corruption as an important issue in international business.     

Using the Gioia Methodology in international business and entrepreneurship research

Building theory is necessary to advance international business (IB) and international entrepreneurship (IE) research. Grounded theory approaches have been shown to be appropriate for building theory in many different fields, including IB and IE. The Gioia Methodology is a qualitative approach to developing a grounded theory that can meet standards of rigor associated with trustworthy research demanded by top journals. In this paper we provide a brief introduction to this methodology by outlining its fundamental philosophical and methodological underpinnings, especially concerning its three main procedural pillars: a) developing a data structure; b) developing a grounded model based on that data structure; and c) presenting findings in a convincing narrative. We present examples of selected papers that have employed the Gioia Methodology in IB and IE settings.     

Corporate elites as informants in qualitative international business research

In this article we argue that while most international business researchers interact with elite informants at some stage of their fieldwork, the challenge of conducting in-depth interviews with influential elites has received far too little scholarly attention. Our purpose is to address this gap in the literature by examining the specific methodological challenges associated with elite interviewing before, during and after the interview. Our literature search identifies four main themes of previous research on elite interviewing: access, power, openness and feedback. By means of a reflexive analysis of four different studies conducted in two countries, involving interviews with 90 corporate elites in international companies, we show that these themes also apply in the IB context. Moreover, these challenges are compounded by differences in professional values, seniority, gender and culture and language skills. We discuss a number of procedures that might be used to balance the power of elite interviewees while maintaining the requirements of academic integrity.