Abstract
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.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
A parallel may be drawn here with the transitory role of the “International Division” in US multinational companies: when the attention of the business divisions was primarily home-centric (US-centric) international divisions provided a countervailing power, bringing management attention to international markets. Once a company internationalized, international divisions were disbanded, business divisions became “global”, but attention often remained or reverted to being home-centric.
Of course, the boundaries between qualitative and quantitative research can at times be fuzzy, for instance around text analysis or in quantitative analysis of case data, such as in the chronology of events.
Christopher Bartlett is one of the very few researchers in IB to have explicitly combined the development of research cases and teaching cases in a joint effort. For instance, cumulatively, the whole stream of cases on Procter and Gamble he wrote over a number of years constitutes a set of very insightful snapshots of the internationalization process of a major multinational (P&G, Vizir, Ariel Ultra, SKII). Together with Sumantra Ghoshal, who was the theory builder where Bartlett was the empiricist, they contributed significantly to our understanding of multinational companies.
The risk of communicating evidence via teaching cases is obvious: under the appearance of a story a teaching case usually contains a strong theoretical or conceptual hidden structure it is designed to surface, illustrate and communicate in a pedagogical process.
One cannot help but recall a revealing anecdote. American researchers studying the aircraft industry had a long day of hard research interviews in a windowless meeting room at Boeing, surviving on coffee and snacks. The same research team, upon flying to Toulouse, France, to meet Airbus management, was taken directly to a three star restaurant around noon and treated to a lavish lunch. Finally, around four in the afternoon, one of the researchers asked the seniormost Airbus executive about going to his office and having the interview, to which the befuddled executives retorted “Oh, we had quite a long interview over lunch, didn't we? Let me take you back to the airport”. At that point the researchers deeply regretted having exchanged opening their note pads for several glasses of wine! Their memory was blurry.
References
Aguilar, F. J. 1973. Daag Europe, Harvard Business School Case 9-374-037.
Aharoni, Y. 1966. The foreign investment decision process. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Allison, G. 1971. Essence of decision: Explaining the Cuban missile crisis. Boston, MA: Little Brown.
Axelrod, R. 1984. The evolution of cooperation. New York: Basic Books.
Axelrod, R. 1997. The complexity of cooperation: Agent-based models of competition and collaboration. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Bartlett, C. 1979. Multinational structural evolution: The changing decision environment in international divisions, Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA.
Bartlett, C., & Ghoshal, S. 1989. Managing across borders. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Bower, J. L. 1970. Managing the resource allocation process: A study of corporate planning and investment. Boston, MA, Harvard Business School Press.
Brannen, M. Y., & Peterson, M. 2009. Merging without alienating: Interventions promoting cross-cultural organizational integration and their limitations. Journal of International Business Studies, 40 (3): 468–489.
Brown, S., & Eisenhardt, K. 1997. The art of continuous change: Linking complexity theory and time-paced evolution in relentlessly shifting organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42 (1): 1–34.
Buckley, P. J. 2002. Is the international business research agenda running out of steam? Journal of International Business Studies, 33 (2): 365–373.
Buckley, P. J., & Casson, M. C. 2009. The internalisation theory of the multinational enterprise: A review of the progress of a research agenda after 30 years. Journal of International Business Studies, 40 (9): 1563–1580.
Buckley, P. J., & Lessard, D. R. 2005. Regaining the edge for international business research. Journal of International Business Studies, 36 (6): 595–599.
Burgelman, R. 1994. Fading memories: A process theory of strategic business exit in dynamic environments. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39 (1): 24–56.
Chandler, A. 1962. Strategy and structure: Chapters in the history of industrial enterprise. Boston, MA: MIT Press.
Cheng, J. L. C. 2007. Critical issues in international management research: An agenda for future advancement. European Journal of International Management, 1 (1/2): 23–38.
Christensen, C. 1997. The innovators’ dilemma: When new technologies cause great firms to fail. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
DiMaggio, P. 1995. Comments on “what theory is not”. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40 (3): 391–397.
Dore, 1973. British factory-Japanese factory: The origins of national diversity in industrial relations. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Doz, Y. 1976. National policies and multinational management, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA.
Doz, Y. 2004. Toward a managerial theory of the MNC. Advances in International Management, 16: 3–30.
Doz, Y., & Prahalad, C. K. 1991. Managing DMNCs: A search for a new paradigm. Strategic Management Journal, 12 (S1): 145–164.
Dubois, A., & Gibbert, M. 2010. From complexity to transparency: Managing the interplay between theory, method and empirical phenomena in IMM case studies. Industrial Marketing Management, 38 (1): 129–136.
Eisenhardt, K. 1989. Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review, 14 (4): 532–550.
Ghoshal, S., & Bartlett, C. 1994. Linking organizational context and managerial action: The dimensions of quality of management. Strategic Management Journal, 15 (S2): 91–112.
Gibbert, M., & Ruigrok, W. 2010. The “what” and “how” of case study rigor: Three strategies based on published work. Organizational Research Methods, 13 (4): 710–737.
Gibbert, M., Ruigrok, W., & Wicki, B. 2008. What passes as a rigorous case study? Strategic Management Journal, 29 (13): 1465–1474.
Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. 1967. The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago, IL: Aldine Transaction.
Gray, B. 1989. Collaborating: Finding common ground for multiparty problems. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass Business and Management Series.
Johanson, J., & Vahlne, J.-E. 1977. The internationalization process of the firm: A model of Knowledge development and increasing foreign market commitments. Journal of International Business Studies, 8 (1): 23–32.
Kogut, B., & Zander, U. 1993. Knowledge of the firm and the evolutionary theory of the multinational corporation. Journal of International Business Studies, 24 (4): 625–645.
Mintzberg, H., & Waters, J. 1985. Of strategies, deliberate and emergent. Strategic Management Journal, 6 (3): 257–272.
Peng, M. 2004. Identifying the big question in international business research. Journal of Business Studies, 35 (2): 99–108.
Pettigrew, A. 1973. The politics of organizational decision-making. London: Tavistock Press.
Piekkari, R., & Welch, C. (Eds) 2010. Rethinking the case study in international business research. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
Piekkari, R., Welch, C., & Paavilainen, E. 2009. The case study as disciplinary convention: Evidence from international business journals. Organizational Research Methods, 12 (3): 567–589.
Poole, M., Van de Ven, A., Dooley, K., & Holmes, M. 2000. Organizational change and innovation processes: Theory and methods for research. New York: Oxford University Press.
Prahalad, C. K. 1975. The strategic process in a multinational corporation, Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA.
Pratt, M. 2009. For the lack of a boilerplate: Tips on writing up (and reviewing) qualitative research. Academy of Management Journal, 52 (5): 856–862.
Quinn, J. B. 1980. Strategies for change: Logical incrementalism. Homewood, IL: Irwin Press.
Rangan, S. 2009. The influence of macro structure on the foreign market performance of transnational firms: The value of IGO connections, export dependence, and immigration links. Administrative Science Quarterly, 54 (2): 229–267.
Siggelkow, N. 2007. Persuasion with case studies. Academy of Management Journal, 50 (1): 20–24.
Thomas, D., Brannen, M. Y., & Garcia, D. 2010. Bicultural individuals and intercultural effectiveness. European Journal of Cross-cultural Competence and Management, 1 (4): 315–333.
Van de Ven, A. 2007. Engaged scholarship: A guide for organizational and social research. New York: Oxford University Press.
Van Maanen, J. 1988. Tales from the field: On writing ethnography. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Weick, K. 1989. Theory construction as disciplined imagination. Academy of Management Review, 14 (4): 516–531.
Weick, K. 1993. The collapse of sensemaking in organizations: The Mann Gulch disaster. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38 (4): 628–652.
Weick, K. 2007. The generative properties of richness. Academy of Management Journal, 50 (1): 14–19.
Wilkins, M. 1970. The emergence of multinational enterprise: American business abroad from the colonial era to 1914. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wilkins, M. 1974. The maturing of multinational enterprise: American business abroad from 1914 to 1970. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wilkins, M. 1997. The conceptual domain of international business inquiry. In B. Tyne & D. Nigh (Eds), International business: An emerging vision. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
Yin, R. K. 1989. Case study research: Design and methods (applied social research methods). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Yin, R. K. 1994. Case study research: Design and methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Accepted by Rosalie Tung, Area Editor, 24 February 2011. This paper was single-blind reviewed. It has been with the author for one revision.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Doz, Y. Qualitative research for international business. J Int Bus Stud 42, 582–590 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2011.18
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2011.18