Introduction from the Editors

Citation

Roberts, C.D.a.J. (2014), "Introduction from the Editors", Critical Perspectives on International Business, Vol. 10 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-05-2014-0031

Introduction from the Editors

Article Type: Editorial From: critical perspectives on international business, Volume 10, Issue 3

Welcome to the third issue of critical perspectives on international business (CPoIB) for 2014. We are very pleased to introduce you to a set of five papers and a book review that reflect the editorial mission of CPoIB to be a truly international and interdisciplinary journal that critically engages with the broad field of international business (IB).

The first two papers of the issue demonstrate the value of interdisciplinary research in the field of international business. The paper by Ralf Barkemeyer and Frank Figge entitled “CSR in multiple environments: The impact of headquartering” demonstrates that the failure to empower developing countries’ stakeholders in CSR/sustainability agendas can be linked to different underlying rationales of international CSR approaches (instrumental and normative) and international business theory (instrumental only). The interdisciplinary nature of the paper by Xin Li and Jens Gammelgaard is evident in its title: “An integrative model of internationalization strategies: The corporate entrepreneurship – institutional environment – regulatory focus (EIR) framework”. Here, probably the two most salient IB theories, the OLI paradigm and the Uppsala internationalization process framework, are fertilized by entrepreneurship and managerial psychology approaches.

The remaining papers reflect the critical approach of CPoIB. There are two sector-specific papers on social implications of the integration of Bangladesh into the world market. In the first of these, “Development or dispossession? An interpretation of global integration of public sector jute mills in Bangladesh”, Fahreen Alamgir and George Cairns look back at the global integration of Bangladesh’s public jute mill sector and uncover the purposeful formation of a pro-integration discourse that benefited the interests of a few, while over time, the majority of the people working in and/or making their living from the sector were dislocated, excluded and deprived. In the second paper, entitled “A critical scenario analysis of end-of-life ship disposal: the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ as opportunity and graveyard”, George Cairns argues that the dismal status of the workers in the ship-breaking industry of Bangladesh cannot be changed without a wider radical change in socio-economic and political structures both in Bangladesh and globally.

The last paper of the issue entitled “A discussion on Brazil-focused publications”, by Nathália de Fátima Joaquim, Ana Carolina Guerra and Alexandre de Pádua Carrieri, is an extensive rejoinder to a paper published by Somnath Lahiri on “Brazil-focused publications in leading business journals” (European Business Review, Vol. 23 [2011], 1, pp. 23-44). The paper shows that Lahiri’s sample is strongly biased toward Anglo-Saxon journals, ignoring the large amount of associated knowledge published in Brazilian management journals.

This issue closes with a book review in which Nicolai Pogrebnyakovv discusses the volume Innovation and institutional embeddedness of multinational corporations, edited by Martin Heidenreich. The reviewer highly commends the volume for the many lessons that can be learned from case evidence and for its new theoretical insights.

Christoph Dörrenbächer
Berlin School of Economics and Law, Berlin, Germany
Joanne Roberts
University of Southampton, Southampton, UK