Three Pathways to Case Selection in International Business

Autor(en)

Margaret Fletcher, Yang Zhao, Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki, Trevor Buck

Abstrakt

With its focus on locational context, International Business (IB) is a prime candidate for the application of Case Study (CS) methodology. Yet many IB scholars still have doubts about CSs, possibly because strategies for their selection and disclosure procedures may lack rigor. The purpose of this article is to document and discuss CS selection in IB research, make suggestions for improvement, and thus raise the standard and status of CS research. Using qualitative content analysis, this paper examines CS selection strategies in four IB journals (1995–2014), relating them to chosen theoretical purposes and logics employed. Our results indicate that 12% of the 333 investigated CS articles lacked a section on methodology, and 41% of papers reported no indication of how CSs were selected. Drawing insights from the dataset, we propose and distinguish between theory-driven and phenomenon-driven CS selection approaches. In light of our evidence, best-practice papers are identified and apportioned to coherent pathways connecting theoretical purpose, logic and CS selection strategies. In doing so, we address the link between case selection and theorizing in CSs and advocate greater methodological sophistication and transparency of CS selection reporting in IB research.

Organisation(en)

Externe Organisation(en)

University of Glasgow, Loughborough University, University of Leeds

Journal

International Business Review

Band

27

Seiten

755-766

Anzahl der Seiten

12

ISSN

0969-5931

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2017.12.004

Publikationsdatum

08-2018

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

502016 KMU-Forschung

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Business and International Management, Finance, Marketing

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/92691c73-bf25-43fa-97a5-9196f5cc4067