دانلود رایگان مقاله دانش کسب و کار بین المللی در حال توسعه از طریق شبکه آموزش تحقیق

ABSTRACT

This paper argues for the need for methodological development within international business (IB) research. This need is born out of the dominance of positivistic research within the field which both marginalizes other scientific approaches and jeopardizes practical relevance. The purpose of this paper is to consider collaborative research, almost non-existent within IB research, as a possible way forward. A performed collaborative research project and its methodology is described and lessons learned, challenges and possibilities are discussed. Our conclusion is that collaborative research may bridge the possible gap between scientifically valid and practically relevant results, but that this requires collaboration and interaction to permeate the whole research process, from planning, through execution to post-project activities.

6. Discussion and conclusion

Collaborative research, properly conducted, offers an interesting and potentially fruitful approach to push business research in general and IB research in particular forward. As a scientific approach, however, collaborative research is located in the crossroads between several interests and ideals, not necessarily compatible. Epistemologically, collaborative research breaks with the objectivist–positivist agenda dominating most IB research. Instead, it suggests a more pragmatist view of knowledge and knowledge development. Thus, it challenges several of the dominant paradigmatic assumptions within the field. At the same time, this break with the dominant logic within IB research also represents the most significant potential with the approach. Practitioners’ knowledge development and learning is very often experiential and its use in practice pragmatic. Our approach of continuous theorizing together with practitioners have the potential of exploring and unrevealing the complexity and context-dependency of international business issues without imposing preconceived ideas and theoretical concepts. That said, we believe that collaborative research has several potential advantages to develop IB research also in comparison with other qualitative methodologies (Doz, 2011), such as interview based case-studies. First, it supports theory building by providing access to rich empirical data without having to do time-consuming ethnographic studies in the field and reduces the risk of being trapped in single theoretical lenses through the close interaction with practitioners without the same theoretical myopia. Working with groups of practitioners on specific topics and issues may counter-act some of the potential problems connected with qualitative interviews (Alvesson, 2003) and revealing some of the practitioners’ theories in use (Argyris, 1976) rather than espoused theories. Second, it provides an opportunity for theory development and, to some extent, assessing and validating theories together with practitioners during the whole collaboration process through continuous exploration and refinement of theoretical constructs. Apart from most qualitative research in IB, such as case studies, the practitioners are not considered as subjects to be described or understood but as active partners in the theorizing efforts. Third, theory application can be illustrated with the help of examples from the participating practitioners, which may be used for communicating the results to both research and practical communities. Collaborative research is therefore not just another alternative method, it provides us with a methodology which helps us to close in on and understand the reality of business actors. Through the mutual interplay of discovery/invention and validation/usefulness, knowledge is produced that is both scientifically valid and practically meaningful and actionable. In this way, the interests of the scientific community, the practitioners and research funding institutes and the authorities may be met. Collaborative research, however, also brings new challenges to the research process. Apart from challenging widely held epistemological assumptions such as the ones mentioned above, it also requires a researcher skilled and interested in genuine interaction and collaboration with practitioners. To fulfill the full potential of collaborative research, and to merge the different interests and expectations involved, this interaction and collaboration must permeate the whole research process, from planning of the project, through execution, to post-project activities and perhaps also reporting of the results. This conclusion fits with Salmi (2011) on collective case research in IB: That collaborative research encompasses the whole research process. Our results even go deeper into this process by showing how such a research process works, e.g., how analysis is an integral part of it.