Beugelsdijk Sjoerd
University of Groningen, Nettelbosje 2, 9700AV Groningen, The Netherlands.
J Int Bus Stud. 2022;53(9):2050-2067. doi: 10.1057/s41267-022-00545-3. Epub 2022 Jul 25.
The field of international business (IB) has been successful in developing a unique body of knowledge on the multinational corporation and on country-level contexts. A recurring debate concerns its claim to uniqueness, and to associated scholarly characteristics that distinguish IB from other fields of research. I discuss what makes IB research unique by looking at what IB theory can explain and predict. To that end, I leverage key theoretical arguments and empirical insights to advance an understanding of IB centered around a firm's ability to create added value in more than one location. I introduce a stylized model of the multi-locational firm embedded in multiple business systems characterized by equifinality. As a result of the qualitative disjunctures that separate one place from another, multi-locational firms are confronted with additional managerial and organizational challenges. These challenges are rooted in the process of "othering". Theorizing on the critical constructs of place, space, and organization, I argue that IB offers the most generalizable approach to understanding firms doing business in more than one location. IB's ultimate uniqueness lies in the potential of advancing a general theory of the firm in space.
国际商务（IB）领域在围绕跨国公司和国家层面背景构建独特的知识体系方面取得了成功。一个反复出现的争论涉及其独特性的主张，以及将国际商务与其他研究领域区分开来的相关学术特征。我通过审视国际商务理论能够解释和预测的内容来探讨国际商务研究的独特之处。为此，我利用关键的理论观点和实证见解，以推进对国际商务的理解，这种理解围绕着企业在不止一个地点创造附加值的能力展开。我引入了一个程式化模型，该模型描述了嵌入以等效性为特征的多个商业系统中的多地点企业。由于将一个地方与另一个地方分隔开来的质性脱节，多地点企业面临着额外的管理和组织挑战。这些挑战源于“他者化”过程。在对地点、空间和组织的关键构成要素进行理论化时，我认为国际商务为理解在不止一个地点开展业务的企业提供了最具普遍性的方法。国际商务的最终独特性在于推进关于企业在空间中的一般理论的潜力。
