Abstract
Despite the fact that international business (IB) studies frequently has to deal with ambivalent social phenomena, such as the construction of international strategic alliances, expatriate adjustment, and the globalisation of the service industries, ambivalence‐tolerant methodologies such as ethnography largely remain on the margins. In this paper, I review selected ethnographic literature in IB studies, employing Smelser's concept of ambivalence as a means of understanding why ethnography has been marginalised, and what a greater focus on ethnography could contribute to IB. I conclude by arguing that the establishment of a more formalised and focused anthropology of international organisations could enable IB scholars to better explore and understand the ambivalent phenomena that pervade its subject matter.
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