They differ greatly in their statistical methods, and have distinct goals and requirements ( Hair et al., 2011 Henseler et al., 2009). One of the most powerful current research methodologies is structural equation modeling (SEM), which mainly follows one of two procedures: composite-based partial least squares SEM (PLS-SEM) ( Wold, 1982 Hair et al., 2017) and factor-based covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM) ( Jöreskog, 1978 Rigdon, 1998), which were developed as complementary SEM methods ( Jöreskog and Wold, 1982). To address the specifics of a more exploratory approach and the increasing complexity of international business and marketing phenomena, researchers need to carefully choose an analytical technique that aligns the research objective with the amount of existing knowledge. Such exploration-oriented approaches are not aligned with a particular theoretical basis, they are often based on several theoretical perspectives, and researchers often explain findings by (carefully) using different lenses. Thus, if the primary objective is to develop hypotheses rather than test them, the researcher identifies and further explores the relevant and dominant effects. In selecting an analytical approach, researchers need to carefully consider the research objective, the underlying theoretical knowledge, and the existing empirical evidence.Įxploring is the first step in theory building – the step that establishes the initial link between the observations a researcher gathers about a phenomenon and a theory that describes it.
Therefore, international business and marketing research requires the use of methodological approaches that are able to handle the field’s changing nature and complexity, and the resulting broad theorizing agenda ( Buckley, 2002 Dunning, 2001 Sinkovics et al., 2005 Seno-Alday, 2010 Sullivan and Daniels, 2008). Furthermore, over the past decades, the fluid and dynamic environment has led to increasingly complex research phenomena and models (e.g. To address the changes in the international environment and the ways international business and management are conducted, researchers often make use of a broad spectrum of theoretical explanations and borrow theories from other management disciplines to explain international research problems (e.g. expanding, modifying, and further developing existing theory). Although a large portion of the international business and marketing literature is characterized by much available expertise and prior research, studies often build on theory in progress or theorizing (i.e. From the mid-1980s, the development of internationalization and globalization was placed on the agenda (see Buckley, 2002).
Following these changes, the international research agenda has also changed in the past few epochs: The focus from 1945 to the 1950s was on explaining foreign direct investments flows and then shifted toward the explanation of the existence, strategy, and organization of multinational firms, which was especially popular from the 1970s to the 1990s. Researchers in international business and marketing face the challenge of constantly and rapidly changing research contexts owing to the growing internationalization of firms, the development of the global economy, and significant shifts in the formal and informal institutional environments.
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