Making sense of the kaleidoscopic image that is international business

• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Date: 01 March 2021
• Author: Mary B. Teagarden
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/tie.22191

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Making sense of the kaleidoscopic image

that is international business

The field of international business is a very big tent that encompasses

political, economic, sociocultural, technological, national, industry,

functional microdimension and macrodimension—truly a kaleidoscopic

image. Three truisms unite these diverse dimensions. International

business is complex—scholars and practitioners must grapple with this

complexity. International business is dynamic—scholars and practi-

tioners must wrestle with this dynamism. And it is essential to under-

stand the context of the focal dimension. The authors who have

contributed to this issue have done a strong job of integrating these

dimensions.

We begin with Andrew Atherton's article that focuses on China's

emerging businesses and the relationship between home country

strengths and host country market entry strategies. The article's focus

is primarily on the influence of the economic dimension of one coun-

try on another. The author emphasizes the current and coming impor-

tance of Chinese global corporations.

Along the lines of the globalization of Chinese corporations, John

Okpara, Jean Kabongo, and Elaine Lau's view from practice examines the

impact of cross-cultural training on Chinese expatriates' adjustment in

Nigeria. They found that predeparture and postarrival cross-cultural train-

ing significantly and positively influences Chinese expatriate adjustment in

Nigeria.

Continuing with the human resource management theme, Fadi

Alsarhan, Sa'ad Ali, David Weir and Marc Valax explore the impact of

wasta in the Arab world by focusing on its use according to gender.

They find that wasta is an important feature of human resource man-

agement in general; however, there is a notable discrepancy between

male and female employees. Women have less access to wasta. The

rich detail regarding Jordanian culture is one of the strong contribu-

tions of this manuscript.

Pulling forward the culture theme, Igor Gurkov focuses on public

opening ceremonies in foreign manufacturing facilities in Russia. The

article focuses on the role these activities play in light of the Russian

business context. These include the exchange of gratitude between

foreign investors and local authorities; the integration of the foreign

business entity into the local social infrastructure; an exchange of

assurances about the long-term nature of the relationship. The

descriptive interplay between the Russian context and firm behavior

is an interesting contribution of this manuscript.

The next several articles in this issue focus on dimensions of for-

eign direct investment. Belay Seyoum and Andrea Camargo link state

fragility and foreign direct investment in their study of 92 fragile

countries. This study concludes that human flight and economic

decline aspects of state fragility contribute negatively to foreign direct

investment. Daria Soloveva, Reza Yamini and Jiuchang Wei continue

the foreign direct investment theme in their article that looks at

Chinese cross-border investment choices. They conclude that favor-

able tax policies and related industries are primary drivers of these

choices.

The subsequent articles investigate unique aspects of investment

decisions. Mike Chen-ho Chau and Priya Nagaraj explore the research

and development investment of multinational corporations. Their

research moves the conversation beyond a simple discussion of the

influence of institutions on these investment decisions to one of a

more nuanced understanding. They look at the impact of regulatory

institutional distance on research and development investment deci-

sions and how this distance influences the intensity of research and

development expenditure. They emphasize the importance of regula-

tions for attracting multinational corporation research and develop-

ment investments.

Stylianos Papaioannou, Mikael Hilmersson, Martin Johanson, and

Helene Lundberg delve into the processes that enable foreign direct

investment success in small and medium-sized enterprises. They

emphasize the important role that improvization and network adapta-

tion in new foreign markets play in success for these firms. Krista

Lewellyn and Rosey Bao examine the role that ownership plays in

research and development foreign direct investments. They find that

in performance-based national cultures ownership by institutions has

a curvilinear relationship with research and development investment

decisions. This article captures the dynamism that creates an “it all

depends on the context”conclusion in international business

research.

The final two articles in this issue explore a specific global

industry, the sports industry. Mike Szymanski and Komal Kalra

focus on team performance effects with bicultural managers and

team members. They find that multicultural players performed bet-

ter when they had multicultural managers as compared to mono-

cultural managers. We conclude with an article by Mike Szymanski,

Richard Wolfe, Wade Danis, Fiona Lee, and Marilyn Uy that argues

that international business research can benefit from using sports

as a research context. They suggest directions for future research.

I agree with the conclusion that this industry provides an

DOI: 10.1002/tie.22191

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