International Business: Research, Teaching and Practice
The goal of International Business: Research, Teaching and Practice is to publish insightful, innovative and impactful research on international business. IBRTP is multidisciplinary in scope, interdisciplinary in content and methodology, and has a developmental mission.
IBRTP seeks to publish international business manuscripts that focus on three thematic areas: (1) Research, (2) Teaching and (3) Practice
IBRTP seeks to break new ground, rather than merely making an incremental contribution to international business studies. Manuscripts should address real-world phenomena, problems or puzzles; recognize that their contributions stand on the shoulders of prior researchers to highlight what is interesting and different; and include a clear statement of what it is they contribute to one or more of the three thematic areas.
IBRTP is particularly interested in publishing innovative papers that start up or redirect a line of inquiry, integrate across disciplines rather than being single disciplinary. Theories whose central propositions are distinctively international are encouraged, as are theories where both dependent and independent variables are international. Manuscripts that provide different perspectives, often deliberately controversial or challenging to mainstream views, are welcome if they advance international business research, teaching, or practice.
IBRTP does not publish manuscripts that merely criticize previous work without providing new insights into how the limitations of previous work can be resolved. IBRTP is interested in papers that are constructive in nature, and so which suggest how our established theories or received understandings of issues in international business can be positively adapted or revised, or extended to offer new perspectives and insights on newly emerging international phenomena.
IBRTP welcomes submissions in any of the six sub-domains of international business studies:
(1) the activities, strategies, structures and decision-making processes of multinational enterprises;
(2) interactions between multinational enterprises and other actors, organizations, institutions, and markets;
(3) the cross-border activities of firms (e.g., intrafirm trade, finance, investment, technology transfers, offshore services);
(4) how the international environment (e.g., cultural, economic, legal, political) affects the activities, strategies, structures and decision-making processes of firms;
(5) the international dimensions of organizational forms (e.g., strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions) and activities (e.g., entrepreneurship, knowledge-based competition, corporate governance); and
(6) cross-country comparative studies of businesses, business processes and organizational behavior in different countries and environments.
Submissions qualify as having substantial international business content, and therefore potentially suitable for IBRTP, where at least one of the six sub-domains listed above is a primary focus of attention within the main line of argument being developed in the paper. The major theme of an IBRTP paper should highlight the insights that can be derived for the international aspects of business activity as such. Papers in which international business is in the background, or in which international business issues are secondary or peripheral to the main argument being developed, are not suitable for IBRTP.
IBRTP is an interdisciplinary journal that welcomes submissions from scholars in business disciplines (e.g., accounting, finance, management, marketing) and from other disciplines (e.g., economics, political science) if the manuscripts fall within the IBRTP domain statement.
Papers are especially welcome which combine and integrate theories and concepts that are taken from or that can be traced to origins in different disciplines. IBRTP is a methodologically pluralistic journal.
Single-country studies are welcome as long as international business or one of its six sub-domains is the central focus of, and not peripheral to, the study. Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies are both encouraged, as long as the studies are methodologically rigorous.
Conceptual and theory-development papers, empirical hypothesis-testing papers, and case-based studies are all welcome. Mathematical modeling papers are welcome if the modeling is appropriate and the intuition explained carefully.
IBRTP welcomes manuscripts about teaching materials/methods, literature reviews and manuscripts aimed solely at a practitioner audience.
Submissions to IBRTP must follow the journal’s style guide including formatting, length and references. Poorly written or structured papers will be promptly returned to the authors.