Research on international business: The new realities

Abstract

Abstract This year (2021) marks the thirtieth year of the establishment of the International Business Review. This anniversary provides an appropriate occasion not only to reflect on past developments in the global economy and International Business (IB) research, but also to offer our thoughts on the new realities that we believe IB scholars should address in the coming years. In this paper, we highlight some of the major changes in the global business environment over the past 30 years. In doing so, we draw attention to four new realities that we believe merit increased attention in the IB literature: the growth of populism and economic nationalism, sustainable development and climate change, new digital technologies, and changing power relationships. These realities are not completely new and IB scholars have already begun to explore their implications, but we would argue that both the scope and the depth of these implications are growing and evolving. We are thus calling for new empirical insights, new theoretical lenses, and new perspectives to shed light on these issues that are increasingly having profound impacts on society, on firm strategies, and on cross-border management.