INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS THEORY

Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »

For over 50 years international business has been the subject of extensive research enquiry, and yet to date there is no universally accepted model of international business, let alone the same theory of international business (Bilkey, 1978; Toyne, 1989; Leonidou and Katsikeas, 1996 and Chandra and Newbury, 1997). A possible explanation for this is that little research has been directed at theory building and testing but rather to empirical testing of fractional areas of interest resulting in a galaxy of independent or semi-independent models and theories of international business (Anderson, 1993; Dunning, 1989 and Toyne 1989).
In addition to the lack of a theory building focus, researchers have attempted to apply to international business, theories from their primary backgrounds. This of course has only served to fragment the research. It is the contention here that new wine must be put in new wineskins otherwise the wineskins will burst. In other words, new frames of reference are needed other than the neo-classical rational economic perspectives that currently dominate the entire study of international business (Simpson and Kujawa, 1974; Calvet, 1981; Johanson and Vahlne, 1977 and Benito and Gripsrud, 1992). Attempts at explaining the behaviour of international firms using the neoclassical rational economic frames of reference have proved particularly troublesome.
The real world of international business is far more complex and dynamic than that envisaged by these frames of reference. Furthermore, a particular weakness common to virtually all the theories of the internationalization process and international business in general, is their failure to question the fundamental assumptions on which they proceed to develop models. Tversky and Kahneman (1974) argue that many of the basic assumptions accepted as truth are fundamentally flawed and consequently the models on which they are based are fundamentally constrained. This seems to be the case with international business theory development.
The theories and models currently present in international business have been subjected to rigorous evaluation and criticism. The major criticisms centre on: • The simplistic and static nature of the models. It is argued that the numbers of the variables that are considered in most studies on international business are too few to explain such a complex, multidimensional and dynamic phenomenon (Ford and Leonidou, 1991; Dalli, 1994; Ramaswamy et al., 1996). • The defectiveness of the methodological and conceptual frameworks. Sullivan (1994) argues that: « The absence of a coherent approach to establish the validity of measurement results in empirical investigations that are disjointed and inconclusive, a proliferation of partially tested or untested propositions and a segregation of the theory-building process from the hypothesis testing phase of research.
Consequently we are unable to create a cumulative structure of theoretical, derived and empirical concepts that provide purpose to subsequent studies » The same author provided an example of how different constructs were used to estimate financial performance in 17 studies, with the result that the conclusions arrived at are unreliable. Bonaccorsi (1992) also noted similar difficulties in his study of firm size and export behaviour. Another frequently noted shortcoming is the small sample sizes and the cross-sectional nature of the studies, when in fact longitudinal studies would be better suited to enhancing our understanding of international business activities (Andersen, 1993; Crick, 1995; Christensen et al., 1984; Jaffe and Pasternak, 1994 and Dominguez and Sequeira, 1993).

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION :

• 1.1 Background
• 1.2 Literature review
  • 1.2.1 International trade theory
  • 1.2.2 Internationalization theory
• 1.3 Research justification
• 1.4 Definition of the research problem
• 1.5 Method of study
  • 1.5.1 Data analysis
• 1.6 Chapter summary
• CHAPTER TWO SMALL BUSINESS THEORY
  • 2.1 Definition of small business
  • 2.2 Characteristics of small businesses
  • 2.2.1Differences between small business management and Entrepreneurship
  • 2.3 Theory of small business formation
    • 2.3.1 General theoretical foundations of small business
  • 2.4 Small business growth
  • 2.5 The economic and social benefits of small businesses
  • 2.6 Chapter summary
• CHAPTER THREE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS THEORY
  • 3.1 Definition of international business
  • 3.2 International trade theory
  • 3.3 Product life cycle theory
  • 3.4 Internalization theory
  • 3.5 Eclectic theory
  • 3.6 Porter’s Diamond theory of competitive advantage
  • 3.7 International portfolio theory
  • 3.8 Internationalization theory
  • 3.9 Innovation related models
  • 3.10 Discussion and criticisms of Uppsala and Innovation (U-I) related theories
  • 3.3 Alternative paradigms
  • 3.5 Chapter summary
• CHAPTER FOUR THE SMALL FIRM INTERNATIONALIZATION PROCESS
  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 The entrepreneurial firm internationalization process
  • 4.3 Chapter summary
• CHAPTER FIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 Construct identification and operationalization
  • 5.3 Sampling plan
    • 5.3.1 Cross sectional data
    • 5.3.2 Internal consistency reliability
    • 5.3.3 Content validity
  • 5.4 Chapter summary
• CHAPTER SIX RESEARCH RESULTS
  • 6.1 introduction
  • 6.2 Summary of results
• CHAPTER SEVEN THE INTERNATIONALIZATION MODEL
  • 7.1 Export internationalization
    • 7.1.1 Intra-mode market development patterns
    • 7.1.2 Results on internationalization process elements
  • 7.2 Comparisons with other process models
  • 7.3 Chapter summary
• CHAPTER EIGHT CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
  • 8.1 Conclusion
  • 8.2 Process drivers
  • 8.3 Single mode internationalization
  • 8.4 Intra-mode market development patterns
  • 8.5 Geographic scope of initial internationalization
  • 8.6 Limitations and suggestions for future research
  • 8.7 Chapter summary

GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT