Thirty Years of International Business

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Thirty Years of International Business Environment
Research in International Business
Studies Manuel Portugal Ferreira David Eccles
School of Business, The University of Utah 1645
E. Campus Center Dr.Salt Lake City, Utah,
84112-9304pmgtmpf_at_business.utah.edu Dan
Li University of Texas at Dallas lydiali_at_utdallas.
edu Stephen Guisinger University of Texas at
Dallas August 2002
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International Business Environment
International Business
International business research is "concerned
with the interrelationship between the operations
of the business firm and international or foreign
environments in which the firm operates".
Nehrt, Truitt Wright (1970) Wright
(1970) By definition, IB is contextual. It
specifically includes the external international
environment in which firms conduct business that
is, the international context in which firms are
embedded. It is precisely the nature of this
embeddedness in an external international
environment that has distinguished IB from other
areas of management inquiry. Boyacigiller
Adler (1997 398)
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In the very first issue of JIBS in 1970. Richard
Wright wrote that trends indicates that
international business research is alive and
well indeed. One of the trends was More
attention is being devoted to the environment of
international business (p.109) What did the
last thirty years show?
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Research Question
To what extent, and how, has the International
Business Environment been included in previous
IB research?
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Methodology

• Content analysis of all the articles published in
  the Journal of International Business Studies
  (JIBS) from 1970 to 2000.

Identification of IBE construct
Keyword selection
Cautious data-collection
Data analysis and findings
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The IBE and The Geovalent Construct
Guisinger proposed the geovalent environment
construct to decompose the IBE into eight
concise(OK?), exhaustive, quantifiable, and
replicable dimensions (2000, 2001). The
geovalent is used to organize a list of
environmental variables. - Econography
(Economic, geographic and demographic
characteristics). - Culture. - Legal
standards. - Income. - Political risks. -
Tax regimes. - Exchange rates. - Restrictions.
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List of Keywords for Word Count
CULTURE culture cultural or culturally acculturati
on multiculture or multicultural transculture or
transcultural cross-culture or
cross-cultural subculture multiculturalism unicult
ural monocultural
LEGAL SYSTEM legal law(s) competition
law(s) property rights safety regulation(s) corrup
tion patent law(s) property law(s) payoff(s)
civil law common law
INCOME LEVEL income (income inequality, income
per capita, , per capita income, income
distribution, income elasticity, income group,
high/low/middle-income, premium income, income
level, net income, residual income, income
growth) purchasing power parity or PPP GDP per
capita GNP per capita
POLITICAL RISK political risk civil
unrest political unrest turbulence civil
disturbance bureaucratic risk(s)
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List of Keywords for Word Count (cont.)
EXCHANGE RATE exchange rate(s) exchange
risk currency risk currency variation currency
variability currency changes currency
movement(s) currency uncertainty currency
instability foreign exchange risk foreign
exchange changes foreign exchange
movement(s) foreign exchange variation foreign
exchange variability foreign exchange
instability foreign exchange uncertainty monetary
risk monetary variation monetary
variability monetary changes monetary
uncertainty monetary movement(s) monetary
instability
RESTRICTIONS tariff(s) pre-tariff or
post-tariff quota(s) TRIM and trade related
investment measures trade policies investment
policy(ies) investment incentive(s) national
treatment border taxes right (non right) of
establishment effective tariff protection effectiv
e protection performance requirements.
TAX REGIME tax(es) taxation foreign taxation tax
rate(s) tax-exemption taxable after-tax or
pre-tax government revenue
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Evolution of JIBS publication 1970 - 2000
JIBS Founded in 1970 889 articles 14,528 pages.
13 articles in 1970 (183 pages) 43 papers in
1996 (887 pages) In 2000, 41 papers along 659
pages. Average 29
papers/year 16 pages/paper
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Number of counts in 5 year periods
- Culture drives the results
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Descriptive statistics

• - Extreme variability across IBE dimensions
• Culture is the most used
• Culture 344 counts in a single paper

"Mean" refers to the average number of counted
words appearing in papers identified in "N"
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Count per year index
This index discounts the yearly publication
record length to provide an adjusted measure of
the use of each environment dimension.
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Weighted Count Index in 5-years average
There is no evidence of increased use of IBE
dimensions in published papers.
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Environment "at the margin"
A look at the content of the articles shows that
the IBE is only marginally referred to and does
not have a significant emphasis.
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Single and multi-dimensionality in IB studies
To what extent are the multiple dimensions of the
IBE included? We distinguish between (a) a
multi-dimensional environment focus, (b)
the number of environmental dimensions used,
(c) articles that did not refer to any
environmental dimension.

• 152 studies have NO
• acknowledgement of the IBE.
• None studies use the 7
• dimensions.
• - 1 and 2 dimensional
• studies dominate.

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The Relative Position of JIBS (1985-2000)
- No conclusion can be drawn that JIBS has had a
leading role in the discussion and
conceptualization of the IBE.
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Discussion

• Rise of culture in IB studies after 1980 may
  be driven by Hofstede (1980).
• Because it provides a quantifiable, understood,
  available, and replicable
• framework for 'culture' that facilitates the
  inclusion of culture in IB studies.
• - The lack of an operational, quantifiable, and
  comprehensive construct of the IBE.
• An exhaustive, quantifiable, replicable, and
  comparable set of measures
• of the other IBE dimensions could lead to
  greater integration in future studies.
• - The majority of the articles cite at most one
  dimension.
• - Multiple mere "aesthetic" references to the IBE.

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Questions

• - Is the IBE is the distinctive feature of IB
  studies? Does it matter?
• - What is the situation in other international
  journals?
• - Does the relative unimportance of the IBE in IB
  research reveal that the
• discipline is still largely undefined and needs
  a paradigm?
• - Is IB becoming more general management and less
  distinct from other
• disciplines?
• Is Guisinger's geovalent construct a potential
  umbrella paradigm
• capable of unifying IB research? Or any other
  IBE construct?
• Will recent world events drive for more IBE
  focused research?
• Is there a need to integrate multiple
  environmental dimensions
• in the research?