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The theory of international business strategy

Narula, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4266-2681, Verbeke, A. and Yuan, W. (2021) The theory of international business strategy. In: Mellahi, K., Meyer, K., Narula, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4266-2681, Surdu, I. and Verbeke, A. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of International Business Strategy. Oxford handbooks. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 11-36. ISBN 9780198868378

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Abstract/Summary

Is there a unifying theory of international business (IB) strategy? If so, what might it look like? This chapter describes the key ingredients of such theory. These ingredients, we propose, constitute the foundation for further analysis of IB strategy. We incorporate both the traditional ingredients of IB strategy perspectives and significant extensions to theory developed in the past two decades. The chapter highlights the importance of multinational enterprises (MNEs) engaging in resource recombination—as opposed to simply utilizing extant reservoirs of resource bundles and capabilities, also called firm-specific advantages (FSAs)—to manage their operations in complex and often highly dynamic home and host environments. The chapter zooms in on the role played by generic behavioral drivers, such as bounded rationality and bounded reliability. Generic behavioral challenges are present in most, if not all, IB strategy decisions. Finally, the significance of a unifying conceptual framework for better understanding MNE strategy is discussed.

Item Type:Book or Report Section
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Henley Business School > International Business and Strategy
ID Code:96066
Publisher:Oxford University Press

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