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Fletcher, Zhao, Plakoyiannaki & Buck IBR Three Pathways to Case Selection in IB.pdf (505.38 kB)

Three pathways to case selection in international business: a twenty-year review, analysis & synthesis

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journal contribution
posted on 2018-01-17, 10:57 authored by Margaret Fletcher, Yang Zhao, Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki, Trevor Buck
With its focus on locational context, International Business (IB) is a prime candidate for the application of Case Study (CS) methodology. Yet many IB scholars still have doubts about CSs, possibly because strategies for their selection and disclosure procedures may lack rigor. The purpose of this article is to document and discuss CS selection in IB research, make suggestions for improvement, and thus raise the standard and status of CS research. Using qualitative content analysis, this paper examines CS selection strategies in four IB journals (1995-2014), relating them to chosen theoretical purposes and logics employed. Our results indicate that 12% of the 333 investigated CS articles lacked a section on methodology, and 41% of papers reported no indication of how CSs were selected. Drawing insights from the dataset, we propose and distinguish between theory-driven and phenomenon-driven CS selection approaches. In light of our evidence, best-practice papers are identified and apportioned to coherent pathways connecting theoretical purpose, logic and CS selection strategies. In doing so, we address the link between case selection and theorizing in CSs and advocate greater methodological sophistication and transparency of CS selection reporting in IB research.

Funding

This project received funding from the British Academy.

History

School

  • Loughborough University London

Published in

International Business Review

Citation

FLETCHER, M. ... et al, 2018. Three pathways to case selection in international business: a twenty-year review, analysis & synthesis. International Business Review, 27(4), pp. 755-766.

Publisher

© Elsevier

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal International Business Review and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2017.12.004.

Acceptance date

2017-12-21

Publication date

2018-03-30

ISSN

0969-5931

Language

  • en

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