Abstract
National cultures and cultural differences provide a crucial component of the international business (IB) research context. We conducted a bibliometric study of articles published in seven leading IB journals over a period of three decades to analyze how national culture has been impacting IB research. Co-citation mappings permit us to identify the ties binding works dealing with culture and cultural issues in IB. We identify two main clusters of research, each comprising two sub-clusters, with Hofstede’s (1980) work delineating much of the conceptual and empirical approach to culture-related studies. One main cluster entails works on the conceptualization of culture and its dimensions and the other cluster focuses on cultural distance. This conceptual framework captures the extant IB research incorporating culture-related concepts and influences.
Highlights
International business (IB) research seeks to understand firms’ internationalization decisions
For young scholars and doctoral students this study presents an overall picture of how IB research has been permeated by culture and its main streams of emphasis in such a manner that they may gain a broad understanding of this stock of knowledge
We conclude there exists a pervasiveness of culture-related research in IB studies
Summary
International business (IB) research seeks to understand firms’ internationalization decisions. These decisions comprise location choices, foreign-entry modes, international strategies, organizational formats, international human-resource practices, among others. The domain of IB as a field of study is distinguishable from management of domestic large corporations because multinationals operate in a more complex international business environment than purely domestic firms. Ferreira, Li, Guisinger and Serra (2009) stated that IB is focused on understanding the environmental context in which firms operate. According to Boyacigiller and Adler (1997) “by definition, international business is contextual. International Business includes, the external international environment, in which firms conduct their businesses” International Business includes, the external international environment, in which firms conduct their businesses” (p. 398)
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