Nuno Rosa Reis

International Business Research: Understanding Past Paths to Design Future Research Directions

In this chapter we examine the extant research in international business (IB) by conducting a bibliometric study of the articles published in three leading IB journals – International Business Review, Journal of International Business Studies and Management International Review, over their entire track record of publication available in the ISI – Institute for Scientific Information. In longitudinal analyses of citation data we ascertain the most relevant works of the IB field. We also identify intellectual interconnectedness in co-citation networks of the research published in each journal. A second-tier analysis delves into publication patterns of those articles that are not at the top citation listings. Our results permit us better understand and depict the extant IB research and, to some extent, its evolution thus far.

Culture in international business research: A bibliometric study in four top IB journals

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conduct a study on the articles published in the four top international business (IB) journals to examine how four cultural models and concepts – Hofstede’s (1980), Hall’s (1976), Trompenaars’s (1993) and Project GLOBE’s (House et al., 2004) – have been used in the extant published IB research. National cultures and cultural differences provide a crucial component of the context of IB research. Design/methodology – This is a bibliometric study on the articles published in four IB journals over the period from 1976 to 2010, examining a sample of 517 articles using citations and co-citation matrices. Findings – Examining this sample revealed interesting patterns of the connections across the studies. Hofstede’s (1980) and House et al.’s (2004) research on the cultural dimensions are the most cited and hold ties to a large variety of IB research. These findings point to a number of research avenues to deepen the understanding on how firms may handle different nationa...

Understanding the relevance of national culture in international business research: a quantitative analysis

This review is a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the International Business literature whose focus is on national culture. The analysis relies on a broad range of bibliometric techniques as productivity rankings, citation analysis (individual and cumulative), study of collaborative research patterns, and analysis of the knowledge base. It provides insights on (1) faculty and institutional research productivity and performance; (2) articles, institutions, and scholars’ influence in the contents of the field and its research agenda; and (3) national and international collaborative research trends. The study also explores the body of literature that has exerted the greatest impact on the researched set of selected articles.

On the adaptation of the firm’s strategies to the international business environment: a knowledge-based and evolutionary perspective

This paper discusses the importance of the adaptation of the firm’s strategies to the International Business Environment (IBE). The IBE is a distinguishing factor in international business studies and the firm’s adaptation to the environment has been presented as a basic survival strategy. We argue that adaptation is a dynamic and largely internally driven process that leads the firm to co-evolve with the external environment. The ability to adapt to different international business environments is developed over time through the firm’s experiences and built into its routines and strategies. We suggest that adaptation incorporates the elements of a planned strategy and of random variation in the search for local peaks given bounded rationality, imperfect information and the current pool of resources and capabilities. The ability to adapt to the environment may be conceptualised as a knowledge-based capability and a potential source of competitive advantage for the multinational corporation.

O impacto da corrupção arbitrária e generalizada nos influxos de IDE e o efeito moderador da distância de corrupção: Evidências da América Latina

There is no consensus in the literature on the negative effect of corruption on countries’ ability to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). Some countries simultaneously have high levels of corruption and FDI flows. In this study, we distinguish the effect of two types of corruption – arbitrary and pervasive – and the moderating role of corruption distance between the investor and host country on the ability to attract FDI. In an empirical study of FDI flows into Latin American countries, the results show that high pervasive corruption reduces the attractiveness of FDI and that corruption distance attenuates the negative effect of arbitrary corruption on FDI. The study contributes to the research on the effects of corruption and particularly to understanding the differentiated effects of the types of corruption and of corruption distance on FDI flows.

The impact of corruption distance on ownership strategies of spanish and portuguese MNEs

The ownership strategy of foreign subsidiaries is an important decision for multinational enterprises (MNEs). Previous research has analyzed the effect of country dimensions on this strategy, both from the home and the host country. In this paper we delve into the effect of differences between home and host country on the MNEs’ ownership strategies. Empirically, we analyze the influence of corruption distance on the ownership strategies of Spanish and Portuguese MNEs, using data from 3,941 foreign subsidiaries. We found that the higher the absolute corruption distance between Spain (or Portugal) and the host country, the higher the ownership controlled by MNEs. However, when the host is more corrupt than the home country, MNEs have a lower ownership level in the local subsidiaries.

Structural and longitudinal analysis of the knowledge base on spin-off research

Following the dynamism in spin-off research, in this study we conduct a structural and longitudinal bibliometric analysis of a sample of 812 articles on spin-offs published in 234 journals included in the ISI Web of Knowledge over a period of three decades. The analyses do not seek to establish a new conceptualization but rather to reveal the intellectual structure of the field and how it has evolved, and the profile of the knowledge network established in the three perspectives: corporate, academic and entrepreneurial spin-offs. The diversity involved in the three streams of spin-off research signals substantial differences. Theoretically, transaction costs, agency and the resource-based view have remained a foundation of spin-off research, albeit that research has been driven more by the phenomena than by developing the theory. The more traditional focus on corporate spin-offs was followed by emphasis on academic spin-offs and more recently on entrepreneurial spin-offs. This shift has been accompanied by a more business/management theoretical orientation, replacing a more financial and taxation-based perspective underlying corporate spin-offs. This study systematizes the existing stock of knowledge and raises avenues for additional inquiry.