THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AS A STUDY FIELD

The field of International Business lies at a crossroads of analytical levels, themes and theoretical traditions, and it will probably remain at this point in the near future. This work follows five years (2001-2006) of the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) to analyse the scope and evolution of themes, methodologies and theoretical traditions in 199 articles. After this phase, it discusses, with the help of colleagues gathered in two workshops, the future of the area in terms of two hypotheses: the convergence hypothesis of the dominance of a theoretical and thematic mainstream, and the divergence hypothesis of a “theoretical quilt” configuration of the field. It concludes that the editorial preferences of JIBS favour traditional approaches to the field and that the second “future” is the most likely to occur, leading International Business to evolve as a social reference more than an epistemological entity.


INTRODUCTION
The field of International Business (IB) studies attracts researchers from many different theoretical traditions.This is understandable given that it is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon.In addition to the different theoretical frameworks researchers bring to the field, IB can also be seen from different analytical levels: from the macroeconomic perspective, through several "meso" levels (such as industries, markets, cultures, countries), and down to the individual firm.The domain of IB crosses levels of analysis with managerial subjects (Buckley and Lessard, 2005).
Firm and production internationalisation can be studied based upon two basic perspectives: economic or organisational (Neumann and Hemais, 2005).Such theories, in general, began by trying to explain why and how companies make foreign direct investment (FDI), in comparison with alternative investments.This leads to the very existence of the multinational corporation (MNC) and then to its strategic and managerial problems.
With respect to themes, Buckley (2002) describes the IB research agenda as an evolution toward three large themes from the post-war period until the end of the 20 th Century: a first theme of FDI explanation, whose climax happened in the first period, from the post-war years until the 1970s; the explanation of the existence, strategy and organisation of the MNCs, which was dominant from the 1970s to the 1990s; and the study of globalisation, from the 1990s to the 2000s.Buckley observes that this was the agenda of the past, and that IB should rethink its future, including taking themes it lacked, such as dealing with cultural differences, under its umbrella.In addition, there is a need to rethink the methodologies and focus of the field by exploring more specialized subjects such as Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and knowledge management, among others.In essence, however, Buckley expounds upon the idea that the field should rethink itself as a discipline.

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For the second event, a workshop with seven professors was held in Brazil specifically to debate the present results and the future of IB trends using the Mental Time Travel technique of Markley (2008).Ten professors, currently IB researchers, were invited, and six agreed to participate.These six professors currently hold research appointments in: International Marketing (2), International Strategy, International Consumer Behaviour, International Organizational Behaviour, and Internationalization of Education.A visiting senior professor specializing in Management Education knew of the event and volunteered to participate, and was accepted by the group.
The Mental Time Travel method, meticulously described in Markley (2008), was adapted as follows: the seven participant professors were asked to sit as comfortably as possible in seven armchairs placed with a wall behind them (so that the participants could rest their heads), with another seven chairs in front of them (on which to lay their legs).The author presented the main results of the first part of the study, a briefing of the Mental Time Travel method (six of the participants had read Markley's article in advance), and Hypothesis 1 for the future of IB.Then, the lights were dimmed, and the relaxation procedure began.The participants were asked to visualize themselves in a congress of the field ten years in the future, attending paper sessions, talking to colleagues, and preparing a report about the state of the art of the field for presentation back home.After some minutes, they were invited to gently return to consciousness, the lights were turned on and we carried out a discussion about the first hypothesis.The process was repeated for Hypothesis 2. At the end of the session, participants were asked to provide feedback concerning the process.Markley (2008) states clearly that any professional familiar with group facilitation methods should be able to conduct the process.The author, having such previous experience, felt comfortable acting as the facilitator, with the exception of the relaxation procedure, which was modified as follows: instead of having the facilitator read the relaxation instructions provided by Markley (2008), a relaxation recording by Chopra (2006) was used (because the author did not feel that he had the appropriate voice timbre for relaxation purposes), and then the specific visualization instructions were read.

1 Theoretical Roots Taxonomy
In order to classify the theoretical roots used in the articles, we used the categories detailed in Table 1 below.These criteria were adapted from Neumann and Hemais (2005) and Hemais and Hilal (2005).Each theoretical category is codified and explained further below.
One article still did not fit in any of the categories and was simply classified as "other" and omitted from Table 1.
The theoretical categories are briefly explained below.Hymer (1960), who was a pioneer of the modern economic view of IB, tried to explain FDI flow at the firm level as the firm's motivation to enhance its market power and to overcome market distortions.However, no article utilising this theory alone was found in the sample set.Therefore, the HYME category is empty.
The VERN category (standing for Vernon) includes articles that explain the internationalisation processes of firms through international product life cycle management.
Briefly, the firm maintains production in the country of origin (where the innovations were introduced) while it can benefit from an oligopolistic position due to the innovation.After a period of time, the technology spreads among competitors and production is shifted to countries with less expensive production factors (Vernon, 1966).
The BUCK category encompasses articles based on the application of transaction cost theory to the FDI explanation: firms set up an overseas business to internalise the transaction costs of intermediate markets, transforming them into bureaucratic costs and diminishing the uncertainty.This follows the work of Buckley and Casson (1997).However, The approaches classified as organisational views by these authors are presented below.
The JOVA group includes articles utilizing the Uppsala school ideas, using the work of Johansson and Vahlne (1977) as a paradigm.These authors, who in turn follow the tradition of Alexandre Herbert Simon, Richard Cyert and James March, opposed the idea of limited rationality to the classical economic assumptions of the homus economicus and described the organisation and its decision making process as a coalition-seeking process with political characteristics among a conflicted human existence.Johansson and Vahlne put forward a firm level theory that explains the internationalisation process of the firm as a process of gradual growth of knowledge about foreign markets and industries (Johansson and Vahlne, 1977;Neumann;Hemais, 2005;March and Simon, 1972).
The ANDS category refers to Andersson's (2000) entrepreneurship ideas, which seek to explain internationalisation through entrepreneurial initiatives from the managerial team of the firm.
Studies with a "Generic" economic base (SGEB) includes studies based on the principles of traditional economic theory, such as macro and micro economic theories, resource dependence theory (Pfeffer, 1982), or transaction costs theory, when not applied to FDI.Also included are articles that analyse, describe, compare or correlate data from two or more countries, industries or markets, drawing conclusions from statistical evidence with reference to general economic principles but not to any particular theory.However, studies in In general, neither SGEB nor SGOB are related to a FDI flow explanation.
Other categories were necessary to classify the articles that were not originally classified as taking an economic or an organisational approach by the literature.
The CULT category groups together articles based in culture: cross-cultural management, cultural differences between consumer behaviours, differences in cultural adaptation of expatriate executives, etc.All of the articles in this category were based on the paradigms of Hofstede and Hofstede (2005), Trompenaars (1993), or Schein (2004).
The INST group was used for articles involving the neo-institutionalism of Meyer and Rowan (1977).Institutionalism studies the building and dissemination of "truths" regarded as valid for a group.In the reinterpretation of this idea as conceived by these authors, organisations are social actors and shape a normative environment in which they are legitimised and survive.Organisational behaviour is therefore explained by the rationalisation of these institutionalised norms.
The KNFL category is made up of articles that view MNC behaviour through the lens of knowledge flows, mostly based on the theory of Kogut and Zander (2003), which says that the raison d'être of the MNC is not to overcome market failures nor to internalise transaction costs, but to enhance knowledge flow efficiency by internalising it.Nevertheless, we included in this category all articles mainly focusing on knowledge flow, whether or not Kogut and Zander's assumptions are explicitly mentioned.
The META group was used to classify meta-theoretical and methodology-based articles, i.e., those articles in which the discussion is focused on theory itself, such as Buckley (2002).

2 Theme taxonomy
In order to classify the themes of the articles, we start with Buckley's (2002) historical description, adapting and unfolding the three themes he reported (FDI flow explanation, MNC management and strategy, and Globalisation) into more specific subjects according to the needs of the data (therefore, some subjects are more detailed than others).
See Figure 1.The "hierarchical" appearance of the scheme does not mean that "parent" categories overlap with "child" ones; each article belongs to a single category.In Figure 1, the "parent" categories and their "children" are separated in "trees".
Buckley's Globalisation category was broadened into the category Environment Analysis (ENV), which includes studies on markets, industries, political crises, governmental measures and policies, all globalisation-related subjects, in addition to "globalisation" proper.Articles discussing scientific methodology or IB theory were classified in IB Theory (IBT).Two articles that did not fit into any of the above theme categories were classified as "others".Table 2 shows the theme list, the codes and the respective proportion in the sample, in decreasing order.
The classification procedure for each single article regarding its theme and theoretical roots obeyed the following procedures: first, the title, summary and key-words, whenever available, were analysed.Most authors state clearly in the summary which theory they are going to use and the main subject of the article.Therefore, whenever the author declared his article's theoretical affiliation and theme, it was accepted for classification.If there was not enough information in the title, summary or key-words, then the introduction, 11 conclusions and references were analysed (references were particularly useful for determining theoretical roots).If this still did not provide enough data, the whole article was analysed in a general sense.

3 Taxonomy methodology
In order to classify the methodologies found in the sample, the criteria described by Scandura and Williams (2000) were adapted.According to Cerchiaro and Ayrosa (2005), these criteria are broader and more useful than the ones usually used in longitudinal studies in Marketing.Scandura and Williams (2000) have adapted the work of McGrath (1982), who built a continuum scale ranging from precision at one extreme to context at the other.This criterion classifies a given methodology as a compromise between precision, mostly achieved by quantitative methods, and context, mostly achieved by direct observation of phenomena in the conditions and location in which they occur, but resulting in a loss in precision.Scandura and Williams (2000) delineated nine research strategy types and four validation procedures to build 13 methodology types.Here we use only these authors' nine research strategy types because they are always available for analysis in scientific papers published in a double-blind review process.This is not always true for the validation procedures.In addition, for the purposes of this part of the studymapping the methodological span utilised by IB researchersthe validation procedures are not important.
2 Not to be confused with environmental issues.

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In addition to the nine "pure types" of methodology from Scandura and Williams (2000), we add two other types of combined methodologies: one combining survey with qualitative procedures, and one for field studies combined with another qualitative technique.
This was undertaken in order to meet data demands and with the intent of detecting potential new trends in research methodology.
This construct has resulted in the eleven methodology types summarised in the Table 3. 15 Vernon (1966) were rarely observed, with 2% each.The time evolution of this distribution is shown in Figure 3.
The evolutionary graph shows three theoretical lines enduring throughout the whole researched period: the two largest categories, generic economic principles (SGEB) and traditional organisational theory (SGOB), and studies focusing on knowledge flow (KNFL).
The presence of the third has been relatively small but constant.16 As for the themes, Table 3 (above) has shown their distribution in the sample in decreasing order.It is very clear that the three main categories described by Buckley (2002) still dominate the discussion in the IB field, and that their specialised subcategories are incipient.Additionally, the presence of theoretical discussion, which appears as the forth most frequent category in the sample, can be seen.
Nevertheless, temporal analysis shows that specialisation of the three main areas is becoming an increasingly important trend.
It takes two figures (Figure 4 and Figure 5) to fully understand the trend over time because two movements are involved.
First, all of the child categories with their parent categories are grouped together in their trees (see Figure 1) in Figure 4.For example, in Figure 4  In terms of the unfolded themes, Figure 5 shows a clear tendency toward specialisation of subjects: the three main themes decrease when separated from their child categories, while the specialised themes increase.Again, it can be seen from a temporal analysis that these proportions are changing.TNC" in the same sample, as we did with "SME", we would find 136 articles, or 66.8%.
Therefore, a statement saying that JIBS is about multinational corporations and their problems would be an accurate one.
Apart from the themes analysis, the methodologies utilized also demonstrate serious bias: one third of the studies were carried out through statistical analysis of global secondary data (Figure 6).This kind of data is provided by large global agencies, governments and banks, the interests of which drive the kind of data that will be gathered (at great cost) around the world.These studies are mostly instrumental, and very little within their findings is critical.Table 4 crosses methodologies and theories, and we can see that FS2 is the second most commonly used methodology, mostly applied over traditional theories (SGOB and SGEB).
In the same Table 4 we can observe that the main methodological group, survey, used in 36% of the articles of the sample, is also mainly used to test hypotheses based on traditional theories (SGOB, CULT and SGEB), rather than to test alternatives in the new theories of the field.These figures may be counterbalanced by the 21% of theoretical discussion.This agenda, however, is deeply seated in the categories proposed by Buckley (2002), who in this regard may have "colonized" the future meta-theoretical discussion of the field.In spite of that, it must be acknowledged that JIBS offers space to theoretical, meta-theoretical and bibliographic-review discussions.
The theory distribution shows a clear preference for traditional researcheconomic-based studies and well-established organizational theory occupies a space incompatible with the richness of all the other co-existing theories in the IB field.Is it a sample of the intellectual production of the field, or it is an editorial policy filtering such production?
If the second statement is the more accurate of the two, researchers using minor theoretical references or themes other than MNC management (such as SME management, internationalization etc.), with methodologies other than quantitative (surveys or secondary data analysis), or researchers with more critical views of the field should be publishing elsewhere.Future research could verify this hypothesis by enlarging the titles examined in a study similar to this one.
Nevertheless, the diversity of theories increased with time in the analysed JIBS sample.Will this theoretical dispersion prevail in the field of IB in the future, deepening and enlarging its multiple theoretical references, or will some of the new theories establish themselves as a new paradigm, dominating the others and constituting a new mainstream?
The same question can be asked regarding the themes to be approached: is the IB field going to narrow or expand what it understands to be its object?
To answer these questions about the future, we organized a workshop specifically designed to deal with the future perspectives.Ten Brazilian IB researchers were invited to participate, six of whom accepted, and a seventh visiting professor enrolled in the workshop.

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To facilitate the future visualization, a future thinking methodology was applied: Mental Time Travel, suggested by Markley (2008).The procedures are described in the methodology section.Markley (2008) recommends the future inquiry to be made by way of competing hypotheses or scenarios.The group "visits" both future scenarios after a period of relaxation and ends up discussing what is more likely to happen and the consequences of each hypothesis.
The hypotheses presented to the group of IB researchers covered the questions posed above: H1 is a convergence or dominance hypothesis for the field in terms of theoretical references and themes, i.e., the phenomena generally accepted as being part of IB studies.Therefore, it was formulated as: H1: "The IB field develops a single predominant theoretical view, in terms of theories and themes (objects), which is elevated to the status of "normal science" in the field".
The second hypothesis addresses the possibility of divergence or "hashing" of the theoretical references, as well as a multiplicity of themes and realities for the field to embrace.
It was formulated as: H2: "The IB field does not endorse a dominant theoretical view, and researchers follow diverse theories, references and themes, as in a "knowledge quilt"".
The Mental Time Travel procedures were applied twice, once for each hypothesis.
Table 5 and Table 6 show the main statements of the participants after each of the "travels".
Participants were asked to share their visions for each hypothesis about "themestheories" of the future; "changes" in relation to the present time; and their insights, whatever they might be.Some participants had a more intuitive experience (as intended by the method), while others were more reluctant to use intuition and contributed a more "rational" kind of analysis.The natural inclination of each participant was respected, and the spontaneous contributions were classified in a broad category of "feelings, insights or rational analysis".
It was clear in the discussion that convergence and mainstream were uncomfortable ideas to the group.This hypothesis appeared as the "bad guy" of the future, and most of the opinions related it with a broad orthodox view of the world: MNC research, research focussed in great groups, no SMEs; traditional economic theories maintain and expand their spaces.The only specific theoretical framework that appeared in the Hypothesis 1 discussion was the cultural one (Hofstede's model and Shwarz's model specifically).
The necessity of variety in researching inside a dominant paradigm would have led the field to such a fine level of detail that theory would lose the big picture of the phenomena.
The changes in this future hypothesis would be the kind of MNC being studied: emerging countries' MNC growth and subsidiary dynamics, instead of "conventional" developed countries' MNCs and subsidiaries.A dissonant view in this discussion was a relation established by one of the participants between convergence or dominance of one stream and the stability of the business environment, leading to a more human-centred kind of research: quality of life and sustainable development as the main theme of the field.
Another interesting view envisioned such a specialization in the scientific language in this field, with the corresponding isolation of research from the practitioners' world, that it would become obsolescent and substituted by a new discipline.
Regarding Hypothesis 2, most professors felt much more comfortable, and the future of the area seemed dynamic and vivid.Different perspectives, theories, levels of analysis, and lines of thought emerge, compete, co-exist, and some disappear.Some of the participants saw a fragmentation of the specializations, leading to a number of groups with very different languages and difficulties in communicating with each other; but innovation was also seen coming from this process.
Others saw the specialization deriving from regionalization of interests, leading to regional themes, research groups, and theoretical developments.The changes here are part of the natural dynamic of the research process: the birth of new thoughts and the death of nonfunctional ones.An interesting view was the idea of the field as a social reference to very different types of researchers; gathering people together in events and congresses to promote interchange of that very broad theoretical configuration.Currently [in the present], IB is more like a discipline than a science itself.Efforts may have been made in the direction of concentration in a Normal Science basis, in order to lend credibility to its findings.

P7
Management of large groups (companies).
-Samenessmuch of the same thing.Few critical perspectives, growth in detailing and loss of relevance.-Exclusion of researchers of other thought streams.-New potential and possibilities for Institutionalism -Transaction costs and their applications -Some themes have completely disappeared, such as knowledge management.
-Two or three absolute new themes appeared as part of the field.
-Emergence of new references to compete with the existing ones.

P2
Groups in Social Science, Geography, History, Politics, discussing international affairs in a broad way.
Extremely self-contained groups, focused on their truths with little or no interchange of ideas.Destructive criticism.Few researchers innovate by gathering exogenous knowledge to their groups.All the variety of Figure 2 is just one of such groups.

P4
-Research centres hold punctual synergies, but local focus leads to regional specialization, causing the quilt.
-Knowledge generation grows quickly, and researchers have easy ways to communicate their results -Difficult exchange between researchers of different research lines P5 IB itself: What is "IB" then?What is the meaning of saying "I made a study in IB"?It is a large umbrella of divergent interests.It has a social function of gathering together people with some common interests; and a thematic identity function, serving as research reference.
IB maintains its interest but loses its epistemological consistency.
-Divergence or hashing will happen due to the very work process of research; researchers are faced with such diversity that we are forced to acknowledge the fragmentation.
-In a post-modern world there is no place for great synthesis.Modern era brought great traditions but postmodern explosion is "big-bang" in a borderless world

CONCLUSION
From the analysis of the theoretical roots of the articles, we may conclude that traditional organisational and economic theories are still intensively used in IB research, slowly yielding space to the "typical" IB theory.The second half of the period studied seems to bring a renewal of the theories of Dunning, and Buckley and Casson, along with knowledge flow based studies.In addition, data seems to show that "good old" economic principles and statistical inference will have a place in the discussion of IB in the near future.
Also, a marked increase in the volume of theoretical discussion papers occurred soon after Buckley's (2002) reflections on the field, as if researchers were responding to his appeal.
With regard to themes, the prophecies of Buckley (2002) by which the specialisation of subjects, the unfolding of the cultural theme, and the search for new theoretical approaches would take place clearly has happened.The promise of Buckley (2002), however, has not yet been fulfilled; the three main traditional of the IB literature are still the most common in publications.The emergent themes that represent specialised aspects of those three, though, point toward the actualisation of that promise in the future.
A critical view of the sample of JIBS articles shows such an editorial preference for themes like MNCs to the detriment of others that it can be stated that JIBS is about multinational corporations and their problems.The present study also reveals an editorial preference for methodologies like statistics over secondary data and surveys.These methodological preferences represent a dominant view of what science is and what the best way to represent the phenomena is, and this view drives future young researchers, spreading a mimetic effect over the future generations and inhibiting variation in the methodological span.
Similarly, the predominance of traditional economic theory and traditional organizational theory shows the same orthodoxy and variation inhibition.
Acknowledging the space that JIBS opens to theoretical works, meta-theoretical debates and bibliographic reviews, we suggest that this space be used to discuss key issues in IB, such as social relevance of research in the field, relationship between the theories and the practitioners' needs, economic proportionality between field activities and the correspondent publishing space, and, maybe most importantly, the social process of representation constructions in research and the veiled battle for the supremacy of some types of representation.

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The future of the field is more likely to deepen these complexities of different theories and themes instead of IB developing itself as a normal science.The current configuration and the future trends characterize International Business much more like a discipline under which several paradigms coexist than a science in the "natural sciences" or "high sciences" sense.If this trend really happens, the odds are that we are going to see IB as a social reference with social functions more than as an epistemological entity.
The management of MNCs was codified as a general category itself (MNC) and split into the categories of Human Resource Management (HRM), Finance and Risk Management (FRM), International Branding (IBR), Cross-Cultural Management (CCM) and Corporate Governance and Ethics (CGE).The "parent" category was reserved for articles discussing MNC management in general, such as strategy, structure, innovation and knowledge flow.By the same token, FDI flow was adapted into Internationalisation (INT), which classifies articles discussing the FDI flow itself, but also entry mode in general or a comparison between different entry modes.This category was then divided into Joint Ventures (JOV), entrepreneurship (ENT), mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and strategic alliances (STA).

Figure 3 -
Figure 3 -Evolution over time of the theoretical roots used during the researched period , "INT+" = INT + JOV + STA + M&A + ENT, and the same for the other two trees from Figure 1.It can be seen that Internationalisation (which explains FDI flows) has one peak in 2002 but, in general, varies slightly around an average of 10 articles per year.Studies on Globalisation have decreased from 2001 on, but MNC management and its particular issues appear to be experiencing a resurgence in 2006 (the value for 2006 was obtained by extrapolation of the first trimester), and other than its 2002-2003 "belly", it has always been above the other trends.

Figure 7 Figure 7 -
Figure7presents the occurrence of the methodologies over time.It can be observed that survey articles are severely decreasing throughout the entire period analysed.On the other hand, theoretical discussion and literature review, after a significant fall in 2002, returns to an increasing slope.Field studies with secondary data (mostly economic base studies) remained almost constant, with some variations in the last two and Hemais and Hilal (2005)divided IB theories into economically-based theories and organisationally-based theories.The adaptation made here to their taxonomy consisted of adding new categories in order to accommodate data that otherwise would not fit in the original ones.The new categories are: an "others" category (SGEB in Table1) for articles with a "generic economic basis"; an "others" category (SGOB) for articles with a "generic organisational basis"; the category (META) for articles discussing methodology or articles performing meta-theoretical discussion; a (SIEB) category for articles comparing or integrating two or more different theories from the original Hemais and Hilal (2005) list; and a category (CULT) for articles utilising cultural dimensions based on

Table 1
below summarises this taxonomy.Firms directly operate abroad to in order to overcome market failures and control their assets so they can plainly use their competitive advantage.
Meyer & Rowan (1977)letrônica de Negócios Internacionais da ESPM 9 v.5, n. 1, p. 1-32, jan./jun.20105,n.1,p.1-32,jan./jun.-ISSN1890-4865-4865AMATUCCI,Marcos.The future of international business as a study field.Internext -Revista Eletrônica de Negócios Internacionais da ESPM, São Paulo, v. 5, n. 5, p. 1-32, jan./jun.2010.Empirical or theoretical studies based in economic aggregated data statistics; meso-and macro-level studies that draw results about industries, markets or countries, and not managerial decision making.Organisational JOVA Uppsala J. Johansson & J. E.Vahlne (1977)Firms will internationalise according to a gradual psychological distance between the home country and the host country.Activities held abroad also follow a pattern of progressive complexity, from representatives to manufacturing.INSTInstitutionalismMeyer & Rowan (1977)Organisations are social actors that seek legitimacy through the construction of an "institutionalised" normative reality, i.e., defined as truthful and shared with other organisations.

Table 1 -
Taxonomy of theoretical roots used in this study Source: Adapted fromHEMAIS and HILAL (2005:36), with additional categories developed for this study.

Table 2 -
Taxonomy and distribution of themes in the 199 articles analysed Source:The author

Table 3 -
Trompenaars (1993)ede (2005)iesSource: Adapted fromScandura and Williams (2000).Figure2shows that 43% of the articles classified do not use any of the main IB theories, but flow from generic economic principles (22%) and traditional organisational theory (21%).In third place (15%), we have studies based on models of cultural attributes, such asHofstede and Hofstede (2005)andTrompenaars (1993).If we had not placed these culture studies into the realm of IB theory, we would have 58% of the articles unconcerned about "proper" IB theories, but deeply rooted in more traditional paradigms.Stated another way, the main IB theories altogether were used less than half the time in articles published in the most important specialised IB journal in the period covered by our study.Distribution of the types of theoretical roots in the sample Only when one looks from fourth place on is it possible to see articles affiliated with the theoretical traditions usually associated with IB field research.These include studies Andersson (2000).The future of international business as a study field.Internext -Revista Eletrônica de Negócios Internacionais da ESPM, São Paulo, v. 5, n. 5, p. 1-32, jan./jun.2010.144RESULTSfollowedbymeta-theoreticalarticles(META)with4% and studies based on institutionalism with 3%.Studies formally linked toJohansson and Vahlne (1977),Andersson (2000)or AMATUCCI, Marcos.The future of international business as a study field.Internext -Revista Eletrônica de Negócios Internacionais da ESPM, SãoPaulo, v. 5, n. 5, p. 1-32, jan./jun.2010.
1, p. 1-32, jan./jun.20101,p. 1-32, jan./jun.-ISSN1890-4865   -4865Discussion at the symposium brought to the table the ideological aspects of having these themes, theories and methodologies in the main journal of the area, perpetuating the kind of research that privileges economic secondary data analysis statistically treated, on one hand, and MNC strategic and managerial issues on the other hand.This dominance occurs to the detriment of SME articles, for instance.Although the taxonomy utilized in this study has not captured this aspect of the publication, colleagues at the symposium clearly stated that it is virtually impossible to have a study of SMEs published in JIBS.A quick glance over JIBS' online database will support this statement: a AMATUCCI, Marcos.The future of international business as a study field.Internext -Revista Eletrônica de Negócios Internacionais da ESPM, SãoPaulo, v. 5, n. 5, p. 1-32, jan./jun.2010.only the last three are properly about SME, one of them (KNIGHT; CAVUSGIL, 2004) being the famous article about born-global enterprises.That is roughly 1.5% of the 199 articles analyzed.In the taxonomy of this study, MNC+ "tree" management articles counted for 42.22% of the total (see Table2, above); however, if we searched for "MNC or MNE or

Table 4 -
Correlation between theories and methodologies (n=articles)

Table 5 -
Main statements of Mental Time Travel participants for Hypothesis 1 Source

Table 6 -
Main statements of Mental Time Travel participants for Hypothesis 2