Interpreting empirical findings

Abstract

Journal of International Business Studies (2006), doi: I0. 1057/palgrave.jibs.8400217 In my role of Department Editor at JIBS, I have seen over 100 empirical manuscripts. Overall, I have been impressed with the degree to which tests match the theory and the choice of statistical technique given the nature of the data. However, there is a systematic behavior that I would encourage us as a field to remedy. We should reconsider how we interpret empirical findings in our work. The current norm for interpreting empirical results rests almost exclusively on highlighting the number of *'s next to coefficient estimates in the tables.