Challenging the orthodox: a decade of critical perspectives on international business

Abstract

Purpose – This article reflects on the development and impact of critical perspectives on international business (CPoIB) during its first decade of existence. The influence that the journal has had through its efforts to challenge orthodox understandings of international business (IB) is considered. The evolution of CPoIB is set against the changing global environment. The contributions to this 10th anniversary issue are outlined. Design/methodology/approach – The journal's contents are reviewed and their impact assessed through an analysis of download and citation data. The position of the journal in various journal quality rankings is also examined. The contents of mainstream IB journals are compared to those of CPoIB. Findings – During its short life, CPoIB has had an important impact on the field of IB both directly through the consideration of issues from a critical perspective in the pages of the journal and through its influence on the field of IB and critical management studies. Research limitations/implications – The conclusions of the research are based on nine years of citation and download data as well as journal quality lists. Practical implications – The findings of this paper provide valuable information for authors seeking a quality and impactful outlet for their research in the field of critical perspectives on IB and related disciplines. Academic and political activists in the field of IB will find theoretical backgrounds supporting their political campaigns. Originality/value – This is the only paper to undertake an assessment of the first decade of CPoIB's development, content, and impact.

Renewing the call forcritical perspectives on international business

“…The contents of the issue, and particularly our introductory article "Challenging the orthodox, a decade of critical perspectives on international business" (Roberts and Dörrenbächer, 2014), took stock of the journal's progress, its main intellectual challenges and contributions as well as of the evolving geographical distribution of its contributors and readers. Our overall conclusion at this time was that the motivations that led to the foundation of cpoib were still valid and that there was much for the journal to do in the years ahead.…”

Editorial

“…More recent contributions (Buckley et al, 2017;Delios, 2017;Doh, 2017;Michailova, 2011;Roberts and Dörrenbächer, 2012, 2014, 2016 have suggested topics for future IB research and directions it should follow to gain relevance. In many cases these attempts have resulted in not much more than wish lists for a more inclusive, societally engaged IB scholarship, derived from the most urgent global problems, including but not restricted to global climate change, global inequality and poverty, to mention but just a few.…”

Gender in international business journals: A review and conceptualization of MNCs as gendered social spaces

“…To date, gender is mainly seen as a property of individuals that needs to be taken into account by HR departments to ensure the most effective employment of both men and women. The possible implications of the gendered nature of the MNC for employees and their everyday relations and interaction as well as for the global reproduction of gender inequality regimes and divisions of labor resulting from the internationalization efforts of MNCs remain unexplored (see also Frenkel, 2017;Michailova & Hutchings, 2016;Roberts & Dörrenbächer, 2014;Tienari, 2014). We argue that the notion of MNCs as gendered social spaces has the potential to take the field forward.…”

“…Several authors have recently argued that gender is marginalized and silenced in International Business (IB) research (e.g., Bullough, Moore & Kalafatoglu, 2017;Eden & Gupta, 2017;Frenkel, 2017;Michailova & Hutchings, 2016;Roberts & Dörrenbächer, 2014). This is in sharp contrast to, for example, anthropology where tacit interest in gender has been present since the founding of the discipline, and different approaches to critique gendered aspects of power in international organizations continue to flourish (Bullough et al, 2017).…”