Foreign divestment: the missing piece in international business scholarship

IF 8.6 1区 管理学 Q1 BUSINESS
Shyamala Sethuram, Ajai Gaur
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Abstract

As international business (IB) scholars seek to invigorate the field and steer it away from what some deem a “research coma” resulting from a narrowing scope, the significance of foreign divestment (FD) has once again been relegated amidst other pressing topics. We advocate for elevating FD to the same level of importance as foreign direct investment (FDI). Despite emerging a decade after seminal contributions on FDI, FD has suffered from a notable lack of attention in IB research and educational curricula. However, FD, like FDI, is a common practice among firms and is gaining prominence in light of recent disruptions such as geopolitical conflicts, economic decoupling, digital transformation, and growing skepticism towards globalization. We identify two main setbacks to overcome: the persistent view of FD as merely a misstep in firms' internationalization strategies, and its perception as a subordinate aspect within broader themes of internationalization, including emerging topics such as deglobalization and decoupling. As we elaborate in this commentary, delving into FD at a more granular level can uncover disruptive spillovers that require pushing the boundaries of extant theorizing in IB; neglecting FD leaves the field incomplete and hampers its ability to fully grasp the complexities of global business dynamics.

Abstract Image

国外撤资:国际商业学术研究中缺失的部分
随着国际商务(IB)学者们努力振兴这一领域,并引导其摆脱因研究范围缩小而导致的 "研究昏迷",外国撤资(FD)的重要性再次被置于其他紧迫议题之外。我们主张将外国直接投资提升到与外国直接投资同等重要的地位。尽管在外国直接投资的开创性贡献之后十年才出现外国直接投资,但它在国际商学院的研究和教育课程中明显缺乏关注。然而,外商直接投资与外商直接投资一样,是企业中的一种常见做法,而且在地缘政治冲突、经济脱钩、数字化转型以及对全球化日益增长的怀疑态度等近期干扰因素的影响下,其重要性日益凸显。我们认为有两大挫折需要克服:一是人们始终认为脱欧仅是企业国际化战略中的一个失误;二是人们认为脱欧是更广泛的国际化主题(包括去全球化和脱钩等新兴主题)中的一个次要方面。正如我们在本评论中所阐述的,在更细化的层面上深入研究金融发展,可以发现破坏性的溢出效应,这需要突破现有国际企业理论的界限;忽视金融发展会使该领域变得不完整,并妨碍其全面把握全球企业动态复杂性的能力。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
16.20
自引率
10.30%
发文量
84
期刊介绍: The Selection Committee for the JIBS Decade Award is pleased to announce that the 2023 award will be presented to Anthony Goerzen, Christian Geisler Asmussen, and Bo Bernhard Nielsen for their article titled "Global cities and multinational enterprise location strategy," published in JIBS in 2013 (volume 44, issue 5, pages 427-450). The prestigious JIBS Decade Award, sponsored by Palgrave Macmillan, recognizes the most influential paper published in the Journal of International Business Studies from a decade earlier. The award will be presented at the annual AIB conference. To be eligible for the JIBS Decade Award, an article must be one of the top five most cited papers published in JIBS for the respective year. The Selection Committee for this year included Kaz Asakawa, Jeremy Clegg, Catherine Welch, and Rosalie L. Tung, serving as the Committee Chair and JIBS Editor-in-Chief, all from distinguished universities around the world.
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