Methodological practices in international business research: An after-action review of challenges and solutions

Abstract

We combine after-action review and needs-assessment frameworks to describe the four most pervasive contemporary methodological challenges faced by international business (IB) researchers, as identified by authors of Journal of International Business Studies articles: Psychometrically deficient measures (mentioned in 73% of articles), idiosyncratic samples or contexts (mentioned in 62.2% of articles), less-than-ideal research designs (mentioned in 62.2% of articles), and insufficient evidence about causal relations (mentioned in 8.1% of articles). Then, we offer solutions to address these challenges: demonstrating why and how the conceptualization of a construct is accurate given a particular context, specifying whether constructs are reflective or formative, taking advantage of the existence of multiple indicators to measure multi-dimensional constructs, using particular samples and contexts as vehicles for theorizing and further theory development, seeking out particular samples or contexts where hypotheses are more or less likely to be supported empirically, using Big Data techniques to take advantage of untapped sources of information and to reanalyze currently available data, implementing quasi-experiments, and conducting necessary-condition analysis. Our article aims to advance IB theory by tackling the most typical methodological challenges and is intended for researchers, reviewers and editors, research consumers, and instructors who are training the next generation of scholars.

Geometrical Measurement of Cultural Differences

“…Instead, it reviews and highlights why the Kogut–Singh index, the (standardized) Euclidean distance measure, and the Mahalanobis distance are unsuitable mathematical tools when applied to cultural dimensions. The use of deficient measures—that is, measures that do not fully capture the construct or are not sufficiently reliable—has been identified as the most frequent challenge in international business research (Aguinis, Ramani, and Cascio 2020; Eden and Nielsen 2020). Because the concept of cultural difference continues to play a central role in international business research and managerial practice, the use of a mathematically correct measure is paramount (Konara and Mohr 2019).…”

Neglected elements: What we should cover more of in international business research

“…Several seminal quantitative review papers (e.g., Cantwell et al, 2014 , 2016 ) as well as editorials (e.g., Cheng, Henisz, Roth, & Swaminathan, 2009 ; Cantwell & Brannen, 2011 ) provide a comprehensive account of extant literature. While these provide a good overview of the state of the field, there is an opportunity to quantify distinct bodies of research around the key discipline elements and methodologies that we use to investigate these elements (e.g., Aguinis, Ramani, & Cascio, 2020 ; Deng et al, 2020 ; Nielsen et al, 2020 ). Quantitative review studies that shed light on the complex and comprehensive nature of theories, constructs, variables, contexts, and methodologies will help identify the discrete though increasingly interdependent assets in IB.…”

Personal factors, entrepreneurial intention, and entrepreneurial status: A multinational study in three institutional environments

“…Yet, for policy-makers, it may be of specific relevance to understand the key must-have factors or bottlenecks that need to be satisfied to create certain entrepreneurial outcomes. Necessary condition analysis (see Dul 2020) is a new research technique that can be used to identify these must-have factors (and can be used in combination with traditional techniques, see Richter et al 2020b) and has been recommend recently for this purpose (e.g., Aguinis et al 2020). Moreover, policy-makers may profit from advanced modeling techniques that put a stronger focus on prediction; most traditional methods concentrate on maximizing the variance explained in models and concentrate less on a high predictive power of their models (see Shmueli 2010;Richter et al 2016a).…”