This important and original book places the case study in international business research in its historical context, critically evaluates current case study practices in the field and proposes a more pluralistic future for case research within international business and international management research. While the case study is the most popular qualitative research strategy in the field, only a narrow selection of possible approaches is currently used. IB and IM researchers typically rely on a case study approach that could be characterized as 'qualitative positivism'. The editors and contributors look beyond this disciplinary convention and encourage greater pluralism in IB and IM case research. Their key argument is that increased awareness of prevailing disciplinary conventions - and their limitations - increases the potential for methodological innovation and versatility in case research. The contributions provide critical, novel and innovative perspectives on the case study in IB and IM research. The book offers inspiration to case authors and an authoritative methodological reference for those publishing and reviewing case research. It will also be highly regarded by postgraduate and doctoral students in IB and IM as well as both qualitative and quantitative researchers in the field.

This book was first published in 2011. The current financial and economic crisis has negatively underlined the vital role of multinational companies (MNCs) in our daily lives. The breakdown and crisis of flagship MNCs, such as Enron, WorldCom, Lehman Brothers, Toyota and General Motors, does not merely reveal the problems of corporate malfeasance and market dysfunction. It also raises important questions, both for the public and the academic community, about the use and misuse of power by MNCs in the wider society, as well as the exercise of power by key actors within internationally operating firms. This book examines how issues of power and politics affect MNCs at three different levels; the macro-level, the meso-level and the micro-level. This wide-ranging analysis shows not only that power matters but also how and why it matters, pointing to the political interactions of key power holders and actors within the MNC, both managers and employees.

The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods provides a state-of–the-art overview of qualitative research methods in the business and management field. The Handbook celebrates the diversity of the field by drawing from a wide range of traditions and by bringing together a number of leading international researchers engaged in studying a variety of topics through multiple qualitative methods. The chapters address the philosophical underpinnings of particular approaches to research, contemporary illustrations, references, and practical guidelines for their use. The two volumes therefore provide a useful resource for Ph.D. students and early career researchers interested in developing and expanding their knowledge and practice of qualitative research. In covering established and emerging methods, it also provides an invaluable source of information for faculty teaching qualitative research methods. The contents of the Handbook are arranged into two volumes covering seven key themes: Volume One: History and Tradition Part One: Influential Traditions: underpinning qualitative research: positivism, interpretivism, pragmatism, constructionism, critical, poststructuralism, hermeneutics, postcolonialism, critical realism, mixed methods, grounded theory, feminist and indigenous approaches. Part Two: Research Designs: ethnography, field research, action research, case studies, process and practice methodologies. Part Three: The Researcher: positionality, reflexivity, ethics, gender and intersectionality, writing from the body, and achieving critical distance. Part Four: Challenges: research design, access and departure, choosing participants, research across boundaries, writing for different audiences, ethics in international research, digital ethics, and publishing qualitative research. Volume Two: Methods and Challenges Part One: Contemporary methods: interviews, archival analysis, autoethnography, rhetoric, historical, stories and narratives, discourse analysis, group methods, sociomateriality, fiction, metaphors, dramaturgy, diary, shadowing and thematic analysis. Part Two: Visual methods: photographs, drawing, video, web images, semiotics and symbols, collages, documentaries. Part Three: Methodological developments: aesthetics and smell, fuzzy set comparative analysis, sewing quilts, netnography, ethnomusicality, software, ANTI-history, emotion, and pattern matching.

Verbeke provides a new perspective on international business strategy by combining analytical rigour and true managerial insight on the functioning of large multinational enterprises (MNEs). With unique commentary on 48 seminal articles published in the Harvard Business Review, the Sloan Management Review and the California Management Review over the past three decades, Verbeke shows how these can be applied to real businesses engaged in international expansion programmes, especially as they venture into high-distance markets. The second edition has been thoroughly updated and features greater coverage of emerging markets with a new chapter and seven new cases. Suited for advanced undergraduates and graduate courses, students will benefit from updated case studies and improved learning features, including 'management takeaways', key lessons that can be applied to MNEs and a wide range of online resources.

This Handbook presents a comprehensive and contemporary compendium of the field of cross-cultural management (CCM). In recognition of current trends regarding migration, political ethnocentrisms and increasing nationalism, the chapters in this volume not only cover the traditional domains of CCM such as expatriation, global (virtual) teamwork and leadership, but also examine emerging topics such as bi/multi-culturalism, migration, religion and more, all considered from a global perspective. The result is a Handbook that acknowledges and builds on a variety of research traditions (from mainstream to critical), updates existing knowledge in relation to current challenges, and sets the direction for future research and developments, making this an invaluable resource for researchers in the field, and across related areas of international business, management, and intercultural relations. Part 1: Multiple Research Paradigms for the Study of Culture Part 2: Research Methods in Cross-Cultural Management Part 3: Cross-Cultural Management and Intersecting Fields of Study Part 4: Individuals and Teams in Cross-Cultural Management Part 5: Global mobility and Cross-Cultural Management Part 6: Developing Intercultural Competence

Dedicated to Professor Peter Buckley, OBE, this volume of Progress in International Business Research explores the new challenges for MNEs, SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) and INVs (International New Ventures) emerging from this changing and increasingly unpredictable political, economic, social and technological VUCA world.

The book aims to analyse and evaluate the strategic positioning of China’s participation in terms of firm-level performance in the generation of infrastructure capacity in African countries. Africa counts among its development challenges a major bottleneck of infrastructure capacity and shortage of investable capital. China’s long period of high growth generates the strengths to secure availability of energy from Africa by enhancing infrastructure provision for the region. To achieve this complementary macro-level development, beyond the traditional dimension of infrastructure provision (ODA), Chinese IMNEs become the vital players on the intersection of these processes. Thus this research makes practical and analytical contributions to international business studies and development issues by making concrete the analysis of bilateral development processes from a macro context to a micro level framework (e.g. focusing on ICT and construction sectors), then fitting this into the real world story. Infrastructure itself is a key element for potential investment and development processes. Therefore, how IMNEs achieve not only exist simply in a way of a commercial-oriented investment, but also in their implications for development and political related issues.