how important is regional vs global scope an examination of u s multinationals beginning with rugman and verbeke j int bus stud 35 1 3 18 2004 several international business ib scholars have proposed that most large multinationals are not global but regional this argument has recently been challenged for both its conceptualization and its implementation we aim to contribute to this debate by revisiting the definitions of regional and global by leveraging data from the u s bureau of economic analysis that is new to this literature and by analyzing multinationals scope in terms of both sales and production we find that u s multinationals are significantly more global than has previously been acknowledged in the ib literature

positioning jibs as an interdisciplinary journal journal of international business studies 2011 42 1 9 doi 10 1057 jibs 2010 50 it is with great honor and pleasure as well as in keen anticipation of what we are confident can be achieved by the journal that we begin this three year term as the new editors of the journal of international business studies we are both long term members of the academy of international business aib and readers of jibs for almost as long as we can remember over the years we have watched the ever more promising development of jibs of which we now enjoy more issues per year and in which the gradual progression in the depth and breadth of its content has laid the foundations for what we hope and believe will be a new phase in the flourishing of the journal in the period that now lies ahead in this respect we must begin by paying tribute to all the editorsin chief of the journal that have preceded us whose conscientious efforts have not gone unrewarded naturally enough we owe a debt of gratitude especially to our two most recent predecessors arie lewin and lorraine eden before arie jibs was the long established leading specialist journal within the field of international business ib studies a partially hidden gem for those of us in the know after arie it was recognized much more widely as a top a journal among scholars of business and management even outside the ib field arie raised the stature of jibs in business schools as a whole an achievement that was crucial not just for the journal but for the continued vitality of our field before lorraine if we are brutally honest jibs had remained a rather shambolic affair in terms of its administrative structure and procedures in fact it is a credit to the earlier editors that they managed to achieve so much with such limited resources and systems of support most of which were concentrated in a single office that used to hold responsibility for everything after lorraine jibs has become an exemplar of efficient organizational systems and well managed and clearly understood procedures for conduct including a pioneering code of ethics we should also acknowledge here with warm appreciation the critical contributions that have been made by the aib executive secretariat and especially by managing editor anne hoekman as well as by david bull and his wonderful staff at palgrave whose degree of commitment to the journal and support for it has been second to none when we look at how radically jibs has been transformed under arie s and lorraine s leadership suffice to say that but for the sea changes which they have brought about we would have had to think very hard before offering our services as editors but with the firm foundation that they have given us and with the resulting opportunities that the journal now has in front of it stepping forward as editors is a decision we have made with ease as well as pride journal of international business studies 2011 42 1 9 2011 academy of international business all rights reserved 0047 2506

relative prices as aggregate supply shocks with trend inflation ball and mankiw 1995 use a static menu cost model to explain the historical behavior of the first and higher moments of commodity price changes in u s producer prices we show that when appropriately modified for a world of positive trend inflation and forward looking behavior by firms the menu cost model predicts a much weaker possibly zero correlation between the mean and the skewness of price changes than that found in the data

building international business theory a grounded theory approach the field of international business ib is in need of more theory development as such the main focus of our manuscript was to provide guidance on how to build ib specific theory using grounded theory gt moreover we contribute to future theory development by identifying areas within ib where gt can be applied and the type of research issues that can be addressed using this methodology finally we make a noteworthy contribution by discussing some of gt s caveats and limitations particularly those relevant to ib this effort is intended to spur further interest in the development of ib theory

governments as owners state owned multinational companies the globalization of state owned multinational companies somncs has become an important phenomenon in international business ib yet it has received scant attention in the literature we explain how the analysis of somncs can help advance the literature by extending our understanding of state owned firms soes and multinational companies mncs in at least two ways first we cross fertilize the ib and soes literatures in their analysis of foreign investment behavior and introduce two arguments the extraterritoriality argument which helps explain how the mnc dimension of somncs extends the soe literature and the non business internationalization argument which helps explain how the soe dimension of somncs extends the mnc literature second we analyze how the study of somncs can help develop new insights of theories of firm behavior in this respect we introduce five arguments the triple agency conflict argument in agency theory the owner risk argument in transaction costs economics the advantage and disadvantage of ownership argument in the resource based view rbv the power escape argument in resource dependence theory and the illegitimate ownership argument in neo institutional theory after our analysis we introduce the papers in the special issue that collectively reflect diverse and sophisticated research interest in the topic of somncs

the management of multinational r d a neglected topic in international business research despite the growing involvement of multinational firms in foreign based r d during the past fifteen years little research has been done on why and how firms internationalize their r d and what effects it might have on firm competitiveness the present paper calls attention to this neglect and seeks to advance the management of multinational r d as an area of study for international business scholars to this end the paper first examines the key contributing factors to increased foreign r d investments among multinationals it then reviews the research literature to find out what we presently know about the management of multinational r d finally a research agenda is proposed to provide a foundation and stimulus for future investigations seven research directions are recommended with an emphasis on interdisciplinary inquiry and a focus on issues that have both theoretical and practical significance

brexit negotiations from negotiation space to agreement zones brexit is decidedly a big question we agree with international business scholars who say that such questions need to be addressed using an inter disciplinary approach we use bargaining theory models of rational behavior and the negotiation literature to explain various brexit options and predict their consequences considering the lack of relevant experiential knowledge and the multidimensional high stakes negotiations underway it is little wonder that anxiety is growing across all 28 european union member states our analysis supports a coherent approach from rational bargaining model to real life international negotiation we position outcome scenarios in different agreement zones and explore their ramifications

utilizing the broader agency perspective for studying headquarters subsidiary relations in multinational companies the nature of global business today increases the complexity of multinational companies and highlights the challenges of managing headquarters subsidiary hq sub relationships we identify key unresolved issues in hq sub relations including closing the gap between headquarters expectations and subsidiary performance managing the nested hierarchical relationships across multiple organizational layers and aligning these relationships across diverse subunits embedded in different social contexts we propose that agency theory particularly its more recent progressions can advance our understanding of these issues and we offer a perspective to guide such research we discuss several research implications of the static bilateral static multilateral dynamic and social and contextual streams of agency theory

one more time international business in a global economy this paper seeks to redirect the debate on the past present and future of international business ib it sets out to dispel prevailing myths pertaining to the field s disciplinary roots its domain and underlying bases of theory and knowledge ib is positioned as an integrative field whose competitive advantage and added value lie in the synergetic combination of global and local knowledge that is unavailable to and not imitable by its major competitors in particular economics and strategy

internationalisation conceptualising an entrepreneurial process of behaviour in time this paper presents a three stage process of conceptual development in response to the call for a unifying direction for research in the emergent field of international entrepreneurship drawing on classic approaches to internationalisation and importing insight from entrepreneurship as a separate and distinct field of study the paper develops three potential models of internationalisation as a time based process of entrepreneurial behaviour the models evolve from the simple through general to precise levels of conceptualisation research implications are discussed

inflation and the distribution of price changes this paper reconsiders the empirical evidence connecting inflation to its higher order moments in particular we examine the statistical properties of the observed positive correlation between the sample mean and the sample cross sectional skewness of price changes this correlation has attracted substantial attention over the years and has recently been the focal point of a debate among macroeconomists we show that the sample mean skewness correlation suffers from a small sample bias that accounts for the entirety of the observed correlation in other words we establish that one of the stylized facts in the literature on aggregate price behavior need not be a fact at all

incorporating transport cost in the lot size and pricing decisions with downward sloping demand abstract there is an increased emphasis in supply chain management on making all costs transparent this has led to greater scrutiny of freight costs by the resellers who want to control their inbound logistics costs an astute reseller may opt for paying freight when he sees an opportunity for savings in some cases a supplier may only sell on conditions of fob origin in this paper we consider a reselling situation wherein the final demand is sensitive to the selling price and the reseller is responsible for paying for the freight given that transportation costs can be almost 50 of the logistics cost s r swenseth m r godfrey int j prod econ 77 2002 113 there is a need for coordination between the reseller s purchasing function and his pricing policy in this study we formulate a model for determining the optimal lot size and the selling price for the reseller existing models for the problem have treated freight breakpoints in the same way as price breakpoints in a quantity discount schedule in doing so they have ignored the option of over declaring the weight of the shipment which is routinely available to the buyer shipper in practice in this paper we assume that the reseller has such an option we also assume that in setting the size of the order shipment the reseller can choose between less than full truckload or full truckload shipment

the relationship between relative prices and the general price level it is very nearly a truismi amaong neoclassical economists that the public is wont to confuse changes in the general price level with relative price changes correspondingl y one might speak of the independence between the two as one of the central postulates of the neoclassical tradition william stanley jevons was aml ong the first to identify this basic dichotomin economic life as well as to attempt to explain the ordinary citizen s seenming incapacity to understand it

the internalisation theory of the multinational enterprise a review of the progress of a research agenda after 30 years this paper reviews the progress of the research agenda initiated by the future of the multinational enterprise 1976 focusing initially on the problem of explaining the existence of the multinational enterprise the agenda soon broadened to encompass the analysis of alternative modes of foreign market entry the role of international joint ventures the impact of innovation on corporate growth and the role of culture in international business the core philosophy based on the coasian nature of the firm and on rational action modelling has remained constant while the widening range of applications has encouraged synthesis with theories developed in other fields of research success in answering any one question invariably generates new questions which must in turn be answered through a further extension of the theory and this dynamic continues to drive the development of the theory today internalisation theory has retained its validity and its vitality over the past 30 years and is currently being extended into new fields of international business research

a note on ranking the international business journals 2000 examined the relative quality of 30 international business ib journals the article s objectives were to present an objective analysis of journal quality for tenure and promotion decisions to guide researchers considering submission options and to provide the academic community with an enhanced understanding of ib publication outlets using citation analyses and a survey questionnaire journal rankings were developed as designed the study was carefully executed and provides a comprehensive list of journals that publish ib research within the ib research acad

solving theoretical and empirical conundrums in international strategy research linking foreign entry mode choices and performance several theoretical and empirical developments in the literature on foreign entry mode and performance and on international strategy more generally were influenced or prefigured by brouthers 2002 jibs decade award winning paper regarding theory brouthers is an archetype of the integration of transaction cost and institutional perspectives i argue that it is also relevant to the growing literature that aims at synthesizing these and other perspectives methodologically brouthers 2002 contributed several uniquely direct and rich measures furthermore it not only displayed awareness of endogeneity specifically self selection issues but also was among the pioneers in the comparative analysis of governance choices for a given firm or transaction i elaborate on the promising if challenging use of such what if imputation to identify the impact of more or less well aligned choices overall i argue that such methodological advances cannot be decoupled from the conceptual advances that enable them and which they reinforce

an equilibrium analysis of relative price changes and aggregate inflation abstract inflation is positively correlated with the variability of relative prices as measured by the standard deviation of the cross section distribution of prices and also with the third moment skewness of the cross section distribution of prices the conventional interpretation of these relationships is that they reflect sluggishness in the adjustment of individual prices in response to shocks in this paper we question this interpretation first we show that similar correlations among the moments exist in alternative measures of underlying technology shocks second when these shocks are fed into a general equilibrium model with multiple sectors and flexible prices the resulting prices also display a positive correlation between aggregate inflation and skewness of the cross section distribution

explaining interaction effects within and across levels of analysis many manuscripts submitted to the journal of international business studies propose an interaction effect in their models in an effort to explain the complexity and contingency of relationships across borders in this article we provide guidance on how best to explain the interaction effects theoretically within and across levels of analysis first in the case of interactions within the same level of analysis we suggest that authors provide an explanation of the mechanisms that link the main independent variable to the dependent variable and then explain how the interaction variable modifies these mechanisms moreover to ensure that the arguments are theoretically complete we suggest that authors theoretically rule out the potential reverse interaction effect between the main variable and moderating variable second in the case of interactions across levels of analysis we suggest that authors identify the cross level nature of the moderating relationships specify the level of analysis of the main relationship and the nested nature of the cross level influences and theoretically explain these cross level influences additionally we suggest that authors pay particular attention to nesting in order to theoretically rule out reverse interactions

a general tce model of international business institutions market failure and reciprocity in this study i propose a general transaction cost economics tce model of international business institutions in which cross border transactions can be conducted at multiple market levels e g output asset and equity and the buyer seller relationship can go both ways a sells to b and b sells to a this general model addresses two major gaps in the literature first although market failure is the driving force behind the rise of multinational enterprises mnes most researchers have focused on the failure of a single market without exploring the presence of substitute markets for cross border transactions second many previous studies have begun their analysis with a bilateral setup between an mne and an indigenous firm for example a licensing agreement but concluded with a unilateral decision made by the mne to evade the indigenous firm in the case of direct investment in bridging the two literature gaps i propose a general tce model to integrate all institutional modes available to firms for governing international business such as licensing outsourcing acquisitions and joint ventures built on a multi market framework my analysis reveals that the choice of the optimal international business institution is tantamount to the selection of the most efficient market to conduct cross border transactions drawing on a bilateral setup it explicitly recognizes the power of reciprocity in solving the problem of market failure this distinct approach points out promising directions for future researchers to advance international business studies particularly after my transaction level analysis has been expanded to also consider institutional contexts and firm capabilities

dynamic capabilities and internationalization of authentic firms role of heritage assets administrative heritage and signature processes we study mnes that tie their long lasting competitiveness and internationalization to the deployment of their heritage assets administrative heritage and signature processes built in their home markets when faced with changes these authentic firms scan for and buffer against threats to their signature processes use their heritage endowment to focus on their capacity to maintain and defend their niches and preserve their capacity for stability we complement the traditional dynamic capabilities perspective by redefining its boundary conditions furthermore authentic firms resist and limit local adaptation of process and products and internationalize only if opportune by deploying preservation capabilities

the eclectic paradigm of international production a restatement and some possible extensions this article reviews some of the criticisms directed towards the eclectic paradigm of international production over the past decade and restates its main tenets the second part of the article considers a number of possible extensions of the paradigm and concludes by asserting that it remains a robust general framework for explaining and analysing not only the economic rationale of economic production but many organisational and impact issues in relation to mne activity as well

from the editors can i trust your findings ruling out alternative explanations in international business research the complex nature of international business research with its cross country and multilevel nature complicates the empirical identification of relationships among theoretical constructs the objective of this editorial is to provide guidance to help international business scholars navigate this complexity and ensure that readers can trust their findings we provide suggestions for how to rule out alternative explanations explaining key considerations not only in empirical analyses but also in theory building and in research design our discussion covers both qualitative and quantitative studies because we believe that it is imperative to understand how trustworthiness is established in both traditions even for international business researchers who self identify with only one this enables scholars to have a broader scope of knowledge when interpreting past research in the field and to be more adept at explaining their design choices to a diverse audience

emerging themes in international business research this study is motivated by two research questions 1 which recent contributions have been driving the research agenda in international business 2 which emerging themes in the literature are likely to set the stage for future work to examine these questions the study examined scholarly work in international business over the time period 1996 2006 in six leading international business journals journal of international business studies management international review journal of world business international marketing review journal of international marketing and international business review next a delphi study of the most prolific authors in these journals over the same time period was conducted to delineate a future research agenda in international business addressing these two research questions provides us with a more complete understanding of the progress made to date in international business research and provides a glimpse of the future

offshoring administrative and technical work new fields for understanding the global enterprise in this paper we introduce the journal of international business studies special issue on offshoring administrative and technical services ats in doing so we have attempted to locate the topic within the international business research tradition as well as suggest challenges and opportunities that the phenomenon offers to theoretical and empirical research in the field we examine the interplay of costs knowledge and innovation in the evolution of ats offshoring from modest beginnings to its current stature as an accepted business practice we suggest that understanding the continuing evolution of ats offshoring requires researchers to take into account not only the business imperative of cost saving but also a more complex set of underlying factors and potential outcomes we argue that the rapid growth of ats offshoring has brought about an accumulation of resources including financial flows knowledge infrastructure and human capital to create new platforms for knowledge creation and innovation low costs may characterize the initial conditions for offshoring but they also provide the basis for up market moves as firms increasingly pursue innovation based strategies we introduce the papers in the special issue as integral elements in our discussion contributing new ideas that stimulated our thinking and hopefully will do the same for others seeking to understand this emerging area of globalization and international managerial practice journal of international business studies 2009 40 887 900 doi 10 1057 jibs 2009 22

erratum to incorporating transport cost in the lot size and pricing decisions with downward sloping demand international journal of production economics 95 297 305 abstract we correct our earlier formulation abad p aggarwal v 2005 incorporating transport cost in the lot size and pricing decisions with downward sloping demand int j prod econ 95 297 305 in which the carrying cost was assumed to be proportional to the purchase cost since the buyer reseller is responsible for paying for freight the item value for estimating carrying cost should include not only the purchase cost but also the per unit transportation cost hadley g whitin t 1963 analysis of inventory systems prentice hall englewood cliffs nj tersine r j barman s 1994 optimal lot sizes for unit and shipping discount situations iie transaction 26 2 97 101

the international entrepreneurial dynamics of accelerated internationalisation the initial stages of internationalisation prior to firms having established their definitive sources of advantage remain the relatively unexplored area of the international business ib literature at these early stages where firms are seeking to establish themselves and new multinational firms are appearing to exploit new opportunities created by globalisation the entrepreneurial aspects of internationalisation come to the fore in this paper we aim to delineate an emerging field of ib scholarship we use the appearance of international new ventures and the phenomenon of accelerated internationalisation that they feature to identify a set of issues that has slipped through the net of some of the existing ib frameworks we propose that the salient features of accelerated and early internationalisation by the newly internationalising firm are best captured in a framework that is found at the intersection of entrepreneurial and internationalisation perspectives which we propose be known as international entrepreneurial dynamics we discuss such a framework in terms of entry points and pathways mapped by firms as they probe the ib arena and the key factors that impinge on behaviour and strategic choices in line with recent developments in the entrepreneurship literature these are grouped into three milestones of entrepreneurial processes that extend across national boundaries 1 the discovery of new opportunities 2 the deployment of resources in the exploitation of these opportunities and 3 the engagement with competitors implications for mne and internationalisation theory are discussed

assessing the impact of jibs as an interdisciplinary journal a network approach in this editorial we assess the cross disciplinary connections of jibs by examining its citation network which spreads across no less than 36 disciplines or fields using a citation network of 166 citing and 645 cited journals we investigate jibs interdisciplinarity using the intermediation and integration approaches of network analysis our analyses of citation patterns for a 12 year time period 2001 2012 suggests that jibs is helping bridge disciplines that do not often otherwise talk to each other a task of critical importance for new knowledge creation we also find that jibs is enabling integration of knowledge from a diverse set of disciplines in comparison to other prominent leading management journals

beyond gaussian averages redirecting international business and management research toward extreme events and power laws practicing managers live in a world of extremes but international business and management research is based on gaussian statistics that rule out such extremes on occasion positive feedback processes among interactive data points cause extreme events characterized by power laws they seem ubiquitous we list 80 kinds of them half each among natural and social phenomena we use imposed tension and per bak s self organized criticality to argue that pareto based science and statistics based on interdependence positive feedback scalability nearly infinite variance and emphasizing extremes should parallel the traditional dominance of gaussian statistics based on independent data points finite variance and emphasizing averages we question quantitative journal publications depending on gaussian statistics the cost is inaccurate science and irrelevance to practitioners in conclusion no statistical findings should be accepted into business studies if they gain significance via some assumption device by which extreme events and nearly infinite variance are ignored accordingly we suggest redirecting international business studies and management research in general

trends in international business research twenty five years later international business ib research has made enormous strides in the quarter century since jibs was inaugurated this article reflects upon the development of ib research during that period it first reviews the findings and recommendations of a comprehensive survey of the embryonic field of ib research conducted twenty five years ago several early trends identified then are discussed the astonishing acceleration in the pace of ib research the broadening of research activity across a greater range of functional areas and an expanding geographic base of research outside of north america especially in europe we then discuss the evolution of ib research since that formative period growing breadth and diversity greater methodological sophistication a move toward research transcending traditional functional boundaries development of new research areas such as management information systems and international coalitions and alliances research on the phenomenon of transnational firms as complete systems and the continued broadening of the geographic base of research emerging research areas such as international entrepreneurship and small business and the greening of business are identified the article concludes with calls for more research collaboration across national boundaries and for greater synthesis of research into broader more integrative frameworks

new frontiers in international strategy this paper studies a new frontier in the understanding of international strategy is to explore it we propose the analogy of the ecology of firms and places as a way to emphasize that the real problem is the colocation of different places with different types of firms locations are in fact the distinctive content of international business strategy we deal with this problem with four different perspectives first differences across countries must be addressed with integrative frameworks able to represent the multidimensionality of semiglobalization or intermediate states between total localization and total integration second differences in the development of intermediary markets in a particular place influence firm positioning and industry structure in that place but their impact also crosses different places and it is endogenous to the ecology of places and firms in a systemic integrative way that makes simplifications extremely risky in the design of competitive strategy in an international context third places firms and strategies form a complex ecology that can be studied with a framework focused in understanding the geography strategy link that incorporates different levels of analysis new economic actors and a set of primitives finally firms around the ecology of places face the challenge of developing strategies and business models to serve the majority of humanity today excluded from world trade it is a fundamentally different way to think about the ecology of places and firms overall we present an intriguing new frontier with the capacity to impact both research and practice in the field of international strategy based in understanding the interplay among firms and places

from the editors how to write articles that are relevant to practice although the journal of international business studies is not a practice oriented journal thinking deeper about the practical relevance of our articles can only help enrich them and help decision makers implement better decisions however while many academic articles in social sciences go to great lengths to explain their theoretical and empirical impact in many cases their explanation of practical relevance is a paragraph in the conclusion section with a few cursory ideas that appear to be an afterthought rather than an integral part of the article here we provide suggestions for crafting a practical implications section that is relevant for decision makers

relevance in international business research a need for more linkages the bi annual presentation by the outgoing aib president has become traditional it is not only an honor but also an unusual opportunity to address an audience composed of international experts in all areas relating to international business it is also a perplexing challenge to choose a topic that should be of general interest without departing too much from one s own field of specialized interest fortunately the aib officers agreed on a theme for this year s meeting relevance in international business research which presented me a topic to discuss

innovation in international business research a call for multiple paradigms scholars disagree on ib s domain and future prescription yet agree that research will engage topics dealing with dynamic change and hard to explain phenomena this paper builds on these views endorsing a multiparadigmatic perspective that complements ib s scientific and humanist paradigms with that of chaos theory the latter we argue is instrumental in studying the non normal patterns of nonlinear far from equilibrium systems we illustrate our ideas in the context of ngos

interpreting the correlation between inflation and the skewness of relative prices a comment on bryan and cecchetti large literature in macroeconomics has examined how the inflation rate is related to the distribution of relative price changes this work has established a striking fact there is a strong correlation between inflation and the skewness of this distribution when inflation is high the distribution of relative price changes is typically skewed to the right when inflation is low it is skewed to the left the oil shocks of the 1970s are one example of this phenomenon inflation rose while a few goods oil products experienced especially large relative price increases but the inflationskewness correlation is not just a result of oil shock years this fact holds for many time periods and many countries e g vining elwertowski 1976 and ball mankiw 1995 for the united states amano macklem 1997 for canada de abreu lourenco and gruen 1995 for australia bryan and cecchetti 1999 argue that this fact need not be a fact at all because of small sample bias if true this is an important claim it would eliminate an apparently robust stylized fact that might otherwise hold a clue to understanding the causes or effects of inflation we are not however convinced by bryan and cecchetti s assertion our goal in this note is to explain why on its face bryan and cecchetti s claim is puzzling their paper presents a model in which there is an underlying true distribution of price changes and the observed distribution is obtained by sampling a subset of these price changes they show that the skewness of the sample distribution may be correlated with the sample mean even if there is no skewness in the population distribution this model however does not capture the reality of how price indices are constructed it is not the case that there are a large number of sectors and the government computes the cpi by sampling a small number of them instead the government measures prices in all sectors of which there may be a small or large number depending on the level of disaggregation the observed correlation of the mean and skewness is based on the full population of sectors so small sample bias does not appear to be possible because the data used to construct price indices are comprehensive one cannot avoid the conclusion that the inflation skewness correlation is a fact 1 if the idea of small sample bias is not relevant here how should one interpret the numerical simulations presented by bryan and cecchetti the substance of their argument we believe is that it is easy to explain the correlation between inflation and skewness previous authors have worked hard to explain this fact ball and mankiw 1995 propose that this correlation can be explained with menu cost models of price adjustment while balke and wynne 1996 argue that it can be explained by a multisector real business cycle model by contrast bryan and cecchetti generate the inflation skewness correlation in a much simpler model although it would be wrong to interpret their results as showing that the correlation doesn t exist one could plausibly interpret them as showing that this correlation doesn t prove anything as they put it such statistics are not useful in distinguishing sticky from flexible price setting behavior in macroeconomic models to evaluate this argument it helps to step back and review the motivation behind the ball mankiw and balke wynne theories the starting point for these authors is the classical theory of price determination central to this theory is the classical dichotomy relative prices are determined by real factors and the aggregate price level is determined by monetary factors specifically if there are n sectors in the economy there are n 1 relative prices real variables such as shifts in demand and costs in the various sectors determine these n 1 prices using any good or combination of goods as the numeraire the aggregate price level is determined by the supply and demand for money this idea is summarized by the quantity equation mv 5 py the n 1 relative prices and the price level which equals the average of all nominal prices together determine the n nominal prices in this classical model there is no obvious reason that the behavior of the aggregate price level is related to the distribution of relative prices if m v and y remain constant then p is constant and any shifts in the distribution of relative prices do not influence the price level to explain the observed inflation skewness correlation one must explain how the economy differs from this classical baseline balke and wynne offer one story for the inflationskewness correlation in their model certain shocks to the economy generate both skewness in the relative price distribution and changes in aggregate output for instance when opec raised oil prices relative prices in energy related sectors rose by 50 or more balanced by smaller relativeprice decreases in the rest of the economy this generated

from the editors advancing interdisciplinary research in the field of international business prospects issues and challenges doi 1 0 1 057 jibs 2009 4 1 two decades ago jibs published john dunning s presidential address at the aib annual meeting in san diego in which he made a passionate plea for a more interdisciplinary approach to international business ib studies based on a careful analysis of the major economic social political and institutional changes taking place at the time dunning 1989 411 observed

the study of international business a plea for a more interdisciplinary approach scholastic efforts to study and teach international business is entirely dependent on our capability to marshal and organise the necessary human and other assets so as to supply a range of end products which are acceptable to the academic community of which we are part our paymasters and the main purchasers of our products viz the business community of course the determinants of success of the practice and study of ib are interrelated and in our particular pursuit for excellence there is no unique or sure fire recipe for success but i observe that in an ever increasingly complex world of international business which is dominated by rapid and far reaching changes in technology and by environmental turbulence this is no less true of successful practitioners rarely in seeking to identify the reasons for business achievement is one able to find a single common denominator sometimes excellence is primarily based on innovatory ingenuity sometimes on the access to or control of key inputs or markets sometimes on aggressive or novel methods of advertising and marketing sometimes on super efficient capital budgeting sometimes on dynamic and imaginative entrepreneurship sometimes on the diversity of operational experiences and capabilities and sometimes on an unusual aptitude to manage human relationships but in most cases success is founded on some amalgam of these and it is the way in which these discrete though increasingly interdependent advantages are ombined with each other and with complementary assets in different countries and cultures which contemporary research suggests is the key competitive advantages of international firms call it what you will e g

is the international business research agenda running out of steam this research note challenges international business researchers to think of their future work in terms of the past achievements of their discipline it identifies three key research areas corresponding to attempts to tackle crucial empirical questions the explanation of foreign direct investment the multinational firm and the globalization of business it ends by considering the future research agenda

transactions cost economics and the multinational enterprise an assessment abstract this paper applies transactions cost principles to the multinational enterprise in order to ascertain its distinctive properties as a mode of economic organization the analysis helps identify just when and where contractual alternatives to the multinational firm are likely to be viable this turns out to depend upon the nature of the technology the regime of appropriability within which the firm operates and the characteristics of the markets in question transactions cost analysis is also extended to the multinational enterprise host country relationship implications for management and public policy are derived

semiglobalization and international business strategy if markets were either completely isolated by or integrated across borders there would be little room for international business strategy to have content distinctive from mainstream strategy but a review of the economic evidence about the international integration of markets indicates that we fall in between these extremes into a state of incomplete cross border integration that i refer to as semiglobalization more specifically most measures of market integration have scaled new heights in the last few decades but still fall far short of economic theory s ideal of perfect integration the diagnosis of semiglobalization does more than just supply a relatively stable frame of reference for thinking about the environment of cross border operations it also calls attention to the critical role of location specificity in the prospects of distinctive content for international business strategy relative to mainstream business and corporate strategy in addition it flags factors products subject to location specificity as being salient from the perspective of international business finally it highlights the scope for strategies that strive to capitalize on the large residual barriers to cross border integration as well as those that simply try to cope with them

why are companies offshoring innovation the emerging global race for talent this paper empirically studies determinants of decision by companies to offshore innovation activities it uses survey data from the international offshoring research network project to estimate the impact of managerial intentionality past experience and environmental factors on the probability of offshoring innovation projects the results show that the emerging shortage of highly skilled science and engineering talent in the us and more generally the need to access qualified personnel are important explanatory factors for offshoring innovation decisions moreover contrary to drivers of many other functions labor arbitrage is less important than other forms of cost savings the paper concludes with a discussion of the changing dynamics underlying offshoring of innovation activities suggesting that companies are entering a global race for talent

relative price changes as aggregate supply shocks this paper proposes a theory of supply shocks or shifts in the short run phillips curve based on relative price changes and frictions in nominal price adjustment when price adjustment is costly firms adjust to large shocks but not to small shocks and so large shocks have disproportionate effects on the price level therefore aggregate inflation depends on the distribution of relative price changes inflation rises when the distribution is skewed to the right and falls when the distribution is skewed to the left we show that this theoretical result explains a large fraction of movements in postwar u s inflation moreover our model suggests measures of supply shocks that perform better than traditional measures such as the relative prices of food and energy

the development and impact of marketing capabilities in central europe the industrial organisation and evolutionary economics traditions in international business and the resource based view of the firm in strategic management provide a rich and related set of perspectives on the question of performance in an international environment this paper draws on these perspectives to examine the nature of marketing capabilities across a range of firm types in hungary poland and slovenia a number of key strategic capabilities are examined including market orientation the time horizon of strategic decision making and positioning capability the study finds that firms with foreign participation have been able to develop a sophisticated level of marketing capability with a resulting positive impact on financial and market performance wholly owned subsidiaries and international joint ventures emerge as equally effective mechanisms for the transfer of marketing capability conclusions are drawn and implications from the research are outlined

an analysis of significant contributions to the international business literature the growing interest in international business has been accompanied by a dramatic rise in the volume of international business research this note examines the international business publication records for both authors and academic institutions for the ten year period 1980 1989 nine separate publications were reviewed containing some 659 international business articles weighted and unweighted rankings are reported

political aspects of mne theory political behavior by mnes has usually been ignored downplayed or passively treated in dominant economic models of the multinational enterprise in order to remedy this lacuna dunning s eclectic paradigm is expanded to integrate political dimensions in the analysis of ownership internalization and location advantages

qualitative research for international business qualitative research in international business has been rare the main research streams of the field relying more on quantitative methods this paper first outlines why qualitative research has been scant it then presents areas such as theory building where qualitative research could make a substantial contribution third it reviews approaches to high standards of qualitative research and criteria for evaluating qualitative research finally some possible research areas where qualitative research might prove fruitful are suggested

advancing interdisciplinary research insights from the jibs special issue twenty five years ago dunning articulated a vision for greater interdisciplinary grounding in international business ib research motivated by his foresight this special issue aims to encourage research that explicitly combines ideas from different disciplines with a view to creating new integrative theories with greater explanatory power than those based on a single discipline five articles selected from a pool of 60 submissions are presented in the special issue each with its own distinctive interdisciplinary contribution to expanding our knowledge about an important ib phenomenon in editing the special issue the editors developed a new understanding of the opportunities and challenges in conducting interdisciplinary research these insights are reported in the current editorial essay we conclude by discussing four approaches to interdisciplinary inquiry observed across the five accepted papers 1 addressing a new phenomenon 2 asking a fresh question 3 finding a better answer and 4 contributing to a base discipline

from the editors conducting high impact international business research the role of theory this editorial identifies a number of potential theory related weaknesses in manuscripts some more general in nature others specific to international business ib research it provides a brief critique and suggestions on how to overcome common problems in motivating research framing contributions reviewing literature benefiting from the review process and other issues of conceptual development it also addresses questions particularly critical to ib research including multidisciplinarity utilizing international context and enhancing theoretical impact we conclude with specific guidelines on how to emphasize theory thereby enhancing contribution and impact in crafting and revising submissions to jibs

traversing cultural boundaries in ib the complex relationships between explicit country and implicit cultural group boundaries at multiple levels international business ib scholars continue to struggle to theorize the relationship between country and cultural group boundaries to progress we first consider functional institutional and critical event explanations for cultural characteristics and boundaries second we contrast theories of explicit global structure based on countries with theories based on implicit cultural groups third we consider the implications of explicit country based and implicit culture group based theorizing for the relationship between explicit country boundaries and implicit cultural group boundaries we do so at three levels that are roughly analogous in country based and culture group based theorizing country ethnic group country cluster civilization and within country region subcultural group political science and other fields that help to understand the relationship between countries and cultural groups but that seldom appear in ib discussions of culture are emphasized one main conclusion is that countries remain linked to cultures because of continuing political reasons for cultural groups to seek to be governed by co ethnics political considerations other than cultural identity however also continue to promote important discontinuities between country and cultural group boundaries we suggest that ib scholars and scholarly ib associations should reconsider their traditional way of defining the ib field because of our advancing understanding of the complex mix of correspondence and discontinuity between country and cultural group boundaries

regaining the edge for international business research the key to international business is that it approaches empirical phenomena at a variety of levels of analysis using a variety of theoretical frameworks the most important levels of analysis are the individual manager the firm the industry and the environment in each category there is vast heterogeneity figure 2 1 illustrates this interaction between issues and theories it has levels of analysis on the vertical axis and the basic social sciences on the horizontal axis as systems of thinking about the phenomena it would also be possible to replace fundamental disciplines by the primary management disciplines marketing finance strategy etc

influences on foreign equity ownership level in joint ventures in china this study examines the determinants of foreign equity ownership in joint ventures in china drawing upon duning s ownership locational and internalization paradigm and the literature on bargaining power eleven variables that impact foreign ownership preferences and concessions are examined these variables are advertising intensity foreign capital input country risk of china ejv investment amount ejv contractual duration cultural distance competitive intensity local partner state ownership local partner alignment foreign partner alignment and ejv location the empirical findings are largely consistent with the hypotheses the empirical findings are largely consistent with the hypotheses further interesting differences were found among u s european and japanese firms with respect to the impact of these determinants

models of the multinational enterprise flexibility is identified as the hallmark of recent modelling of the multinational enterprise the focus on flexibility is a response to the rationalization and restructuring of international business which has occurred since the end of the golden age of western economic growth flexibility has been south in factor markets intermediate product markets and markets for final products it has been sought by both governments and firms flexible firms are attracted to locations with flexible host governments this article contrasts the modern research agenda based on flexibility with the more traditional research agenda which predominates in the literature reviewed by caves 1996

navigating identity duality in multinational subsidiaries a paradox lens on identity claims at hindustan unilever 1959 2015 multinational subsidiaries do not merely seek legitimacy within their dual institutional contexts they also strive to articulate an organizational identity by drawing on institutional resources embedded in these dual contexts we draw attention to the subsidiary s identity duality and conceptualize it as a paradox i e as the juxtaposition of the contradictory interdependent and persistent characteristics of the global and the local in the subsidiary s identity using 57 years of archival data from hindustan unilever the indian subsidiary of anglo dutch multinational unilever we observe changing patterns in the articulation of identity claims by subsidiary leaders and develop a process model of how subsidiaries navigate identity duality over time we find that subsidiary leaders may use two modes of organizational identity work for this purpose logic ordering the articulation of identity claims that respond to contradictory institutional demands by privileging one and subordinating the other and logic bridging the articulation of identity claims that respond to contradictory institutional demands by effecting a janusian integration of the said demands over time and employing these modes of identity work leaders at hindustan unilever sustained a dynamic balance between the dual cores of the subsidiary s espoused identity

firms corporate social responsibility behavior an integration of institutional and profit maximization approaches understanding firms behavior across countries a key concern in the international business literature requires the joint consideration of both institutional influences and firms profit maximization goals in the corporate social responsibility csr area however researchers have utilized theories that take into account only one or the other institutional theory which explains csr as legitimacy seeking activities in line with national level institutions or economic based approaches that consider csr effects only in terms of firm profitability while an institutional argument implies convergence in csr behavior among firms in similar institutional contexts profit maximization logic treats csr as a firm specific behavior we integrate these perspectives by demonstrating the moderating effects of firms economic motivations for seeking legitimacy on the relationship between institutional environment and csr responsiveness we argue that variations in firms economic visibility and economic vulnerability can bring about differences in their need for societal goodwill and in turn their legitimacy seeking findings on a database of apparel firms employee related csr across 23 countries support this overall argument the integration of such fundamentally different theoretical perspectives allows us to contribute new theoretical insights to international business on the influence of national institutions on firms behavior

towards a renaissance in international business research big questions grand challenges and the future of ib scholarship in this article we review critiques of international business ib research with a focus on whether ib scholarship tackles big questions we identify three major areas where ib scholars have addressed important global phenomena but find that they have had little influence outside of ib and only limited effects on business or government policy we propose a redirection of ib research towards grand challenges in global business and the use of interdisciplinary research methods multilevel approaches and phenomena driven perspectives to address those questions we argue that ib can play a more constructive and vital role by tackling expansive topics at the business societal interface

international venturing by emerging economy firms the effects of firm capabilities home country networks and corporate entrepreneurship past literature on foreign direct investment generally supports an economics perspective that there is a direct relationship between firm specific ownership advantages and international expansion however in emerging economies with their institutional environment context characterized by low resource munificence and continuous economic liberalization a theoretical extension of the current perspective is needed this paper introduces new parameters by focusing on specific ownership advantages and strategic actions that firms have to develop in response to the institutional characteristics of the emerging economies when they decide to pursue outward fdi the focus here is on international venturing that requires a firm to engage in activities for new business creation in a foreign country rather than simply seek to distribute a product in another nation it is shown empirically that the relationship between firm specific ownership advantages and international venturing is moderated by the degree of home industry competition and export intensity in addition such a relationship is mediated by the intensity of corporate entrepreneurial transformation in the form of innovation new business creation and strategic renewal

from a distance and generalizable to up close and grounded reclaiming a place for qualitative methods in international business research journal of international business studies 2011 42 573 581 doi 10 1057 jibs 2011 19 it is exhilarating to write the introduction to this special issue as it presents an important opportunity for qualitative research to reclaim its position as an integral part of international business ib research the field of ib was founded on a rich qualitative research legacy e g bartlett 1979 crozier 1965 fayerweather 1969 johanson vahlne 1977 kindleberger 1956 prahalad 1975 wilkins 1970 1974 over time however such methods have been progressively marginalized in our field as quantitative methods have become the norm this shift in emphasis has mirrored the broader trend toward more positivistic empirical methods in the social sciences the field of ib is multidisciplinary in scope and interdisciplinary in content and methodology statement of jibs editorial policy however as our respective home disciplines came under growing pressure to solidify their legitimacy as scientific endeavors that merit scholarly attention it is not surprising that we began to take on the norms propagated within our own academic communities that typically equated quantitative data with hard science while there are clear merits associated with quantitative methods the multi cultural multi dimensional and dynamic nature of the field of ib lends itself to a broad range of research methodologies qualitative methods being one of them in order to understand the complexities of emergent and evolving phenomena scattered over distance and the differentiated contexts typical to many topics under investigation in ib it is often inappropriate to engage in large scale cross sectional studies or reductionist methods in the absence of well developed theory rather thick description exploratory research and comparative case analysis that focus on inductive theory building and hypotheses generation may be more suitable

making globalization good the moral challenges of global capitalism introduction 1 the moral imperatives of global capitalism an overview 2 private morality and capitalism learning from the past 3 institutions and morality an economist s appraisal 4 towards a new paradigm of development 5 transformation of society implications for globalization 6 global social justice the moral responsibilities of the rich to the poor 7 the ethical framework of the global market economy 8 the challenge of global capitalism a christian perspective 9 the challenge of global capitalism an islamic perspective 10 global convenant a jewish perspective on globalization 11 the challenge of global capitalism the perspective of eastern religions 12 a universal culture of human rights and freedom s habits caritapolis 13 on the political relevance of global civil society 14 to be confirmed 15 governments and supranational agencies 16 conclusion

understanding the domain of cross national buyer seller interactions cross national face to face selling has thus far received very little scholarly treatment in marketing literature with few notable exceptions most existing research in this area has been fragmentary and opportunistic these problems are largely because of the lack of a broad generalizable framework within which to conceptualize and execute research studies in offering such a conceptual framework this article looks at buyer seller interactions from a communication perspective

source or storer ib s performance in a knowledge network the absence of systematic assessment of ib s performance as a reference discipline prolongs questioning of the contribution that ib scholarship makes to other business fields put simply do ib journals export more ideas to allied disciplines than they import from them difficulty in evaluating the merits of let alone the need for solutions offered to boost interdisciplinary relevance slows validation of the ontological principles and epistemic standards of ib research this paper begins to fill this gap it establishes a knowledge network composed of 39 high impact journals that represent the domains of management marketing finance economics operations it accounting human resources organizational behavior and ib we collected citation exchanges among these 39 journals from 2000 through 2007 a log multiplicative model evaluated multiple dimensions of association to determine the sources and storers of knowledge within the network the network from pathfinder analysis was used to determine each journal s contribution to network entropy these analyses indicate that ib journals functioned as storers not sources of ideas within the sampled knowledge network over the studied period the results help interpret opposing proposals to fortify ib studies highlight the tradeoff between exploitation and exploration in knowledge development and dissemination and elaborate jibs s boundary spanning performance within the sampled network

an analysis of twenty five years of research in the journal of international business studies the article analyzes the twenty five years of research published in the journal of international business studies jibs since its inception in 1970 the article reviews the authors their institutional affiliations and the discipline content of the published articles

the structure of jibs s social network and the relevance of intra country variation a typology for future research we examine articles published in the journal of international business studies jibs and introduce a typology to support the relevance of intra country variation in international business ib based on social network theory our analysis uses multidimensional scaling to study 53 203 citations from 1158 qualifying jibs articles to determine the journal s social structure the results indicate that three current research clusters multinational enterprise knowledge development foreign entry and cultural effects and the internationalization process and national culture are based on established ib theory then we respond to calls in the literature to improve research concerning intra country variation and propose a typology of three dimensions social demographic and geographic to study the diversity of individual firm and economic activity in a country the social dimension evaluates the importance of modernist and traditionalist values the demographic dimension proposes differences between urban and rural settings and the geographic dimension discusses the relevance of border and interior locations we suggest a nested typology that unifies these three dimensions for continued use in ib future research opportunities related to jibs s social structure and the intra country variation typology are recommended

letter from the editor in chief jibs publication criteria and their consequences overview of jibs 41 7 this issue of jibs contains eight articles that were all submitted to my editorial team the topics span a wide range of issues in international business ib studies each article makes a valuable contribution to ib research when assessed on the jibs three fold criteria for publication fit quality and contribution the issue opens with an article by ambos andersson and birkinshaw examining the consequences of initiative taking in mne subsidiaries in terms of bargaining power autonomy and influence two articles on institutions and ib follow chacar newburry and vissa on the role of home country institutions in performance persistence research and kim kim and hoskisson on the impact of institutional change on performance of business group mnes in korea sun mellahi and thun conduct a qualitative study of political embeddedness of foreign mnes in the chinese automotive industry the impact of returnee entrepreneurs fdi and interfirm employee mobility in affecting the innovation performance of chinese high tech firms is studied in liu lu filatotchev buck and wright the next two papers focus on international marketing dou li zhou and su analyze relationship satisfaction between global professional service firms and their clients in china lastly sinkovics jean and cavusgil examine the role played by information technology in international customer supplier relationships in taiwan the issue concludes with an article by colantone and sleuwaegen examining the impacts of globalization through international trade flows on the entry and exit patterns of manufacturing firms in eight european countries

problems and developments in the core theory of international business the established theory of international business is not without problems it is necessary to specify the key relationships between internalisation and market structure and between internalisation and competitive advantage more carefully this chapter attempts to clarify the former relationship by reference to the work of hymer and the latter by contrasting the nature of internalisation decisions with those building short run competitive advantage avenues of development of the theory include the integration of non traditional concepts and the reintegration of areas of research which have become divorced from core international business theory

the internationalization of the curriculum this note reviews the results of four surveys related to the efforts of the aacsb to internationalize the curriculum of the business schools the first a survey of the 1071 participants in the 30 workshop seminars which have been organized by the aacsb showed that the workshops have been very beneficial for the participants and affected the courses they teach the second survey of all aacsb member schools showed that most of them plan to internationalize their curriculums by introducing an international dimension into the core courses but this raises the question of whether the faculty members are trained or prepared to do this the third survey found that only 64 out of 564 aacsb member schools have one or more exchange programs with foreign business schools and that only about 125 professors go overseas each year under the aegis of these programs finally a fourth survey of the 53 largest doctoral programs indicated that only 17 of the graduates of our doctoral programs study any international courses during their graduate masters and doctoral studies thus the next generation of faculty members will have difficulty in introducing any international content into the courses they teach