Reconciling theory and context: How the case study can set a new agenda for international business research

Author(s)
Catherine Welch, Eriikka Paavilainen-Mäntymäki, Rebecca Piekkari, Maria Emmanouela Plakoyiannaki
Abstract

In our Decade Award-winning article from 2011 we argued that it is not possible to explain social phenomena without consideration of their contexts. However, a persistent assumption in international business (IB) is that theories should be context-free. This affects the methodological choices we make, favoring the inductive theory-building approach to theorizing from case studies. In 2011, we proposed an alternative – contextualized explanations – that in our view better utilizes the main strength of the case study: reconciling theory and context. In this Retrospective, we further develop our original argument that context is essential, and not a hindrance, to theorizing, as well as elaborate on how decontextualization impoverishes theoretical insights. In order to achieve contextualized explanation, we offer four alternatives: process research, historical research, the extended case method, and configurational theorizing. We argue that, for the IB field to take contextualization seriously, we need an open debate about what theory is and how we produce it. We hope this paper will broaden the scope of our discussion from the need for methodological pluralism to the need for theoretical pluralism, thereby setting a new agenda for future IB research.

Organisation(s)
Department of Marketing and International Business
External organisation(s)
The University of Sydney, Hanken School of Economics, University of Turku, Aalto University
Journal
Journal of International Business Studies
Volume
53
Pages
4-26
No. of pages
23
ISSN
0047-2506
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-021-00484-5
Publication date
01-2022
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
502054 Entrepreneurship, 502016 SME-research
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Economics and Econometrics, Business, Management and Accounting(all), Management of Technology and Innovation, Business and International Management, Strategy and Management
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/reconciling-theory-and-context-how-the-case-study-can-set-a-new-agenda-for-international-business-research(bfd17f0b-734a-4974-b095-704bf094a67c).html