International business research: The real challenges are data and theory
Hennart,Jean-Francois Sutherland,Dylan
Hennart,Jean-Francois
Sutherland,Dylan
Abstract
We agree with Aguinis and Gabriel that, contrary to Eden and Nielsen, international business (IB) is not uniquely complex, but argue that it faces two unique challenges. First, because it deals with cross-country phenomena, IB data are less plentiful and reliable. Second, because IB uses many imported theories, and they tend to be influenced by the national environment of their authors, they often have, taken as is, limited applicability in many of the contexts IB studies. We illustrate our twin points by examining the secondary data used in IB to measure the economic activities of multinational enterprises outside their home country, both at the country level, using foreign direct investment (FDI) data from balance of payments statistics, and at the firm level, using firm-level databases such as Orbis. We document the serious shortcomings of FDI data and the problems encountered in using firm-level data. We then highlight some of the cultural biases inherent in Williamson’s version of transaction cost theory (TCT) but show how they can be overcome to arrive at a richer and more general theory that is applicable to a wider variety of contexts.
Description
Funding Information: This work was supported by the USM short-term grant (STG/304.PPSK.6315141). Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).
Date
2022-12
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
transaction cost theory, foreign direct investment, internationalization, international business data, international business theory
Citation
Hennart, J-F & Sutherland, D 2022, 'International business research: The real challenges are data and theory', Journal of International Business Studies, vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 2068-2087. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-022-00566-y