Theory and Method in International Business Research

Peter J. Buckley and Malcolm Chapman

Chapter 4 in International Business, 1998, pp 89-105 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract International business research represents an excellent testing ground for multidisciplinary research. Indeed, it has been considered as a test case for a unified social science approach. This chapter (1) examines previous attempts to achieve interdisciplinarity in international business research, (2) confronts the key difficulties in achieving interdisciplinarity in this context, (3) traces the intellectual heritage of interdisciplinary approaches and (4) suggests ways forward. It goes on to examine research design and methods in order to achieve the goals thus delineated. Arguments are presented which advocate an approach which is comparative and longitudinal. The importance and types of comparator are examined (spatial comparators, historical comparators, counterfactual comparators) and the importance of the time dimension in management research is stressed. The third part examines one particular approach: an attempt to combine economics and social anthropology in an analysis of the management of cooperative strategies. This focuses attention on research method and on the nature of the evidence in management research.

Keywords: International Business; Participant Observation; Comparative Research; Cooperative Strategy; Comparative Perspective (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-26416-2_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781349264162

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-26416-2_4

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().