Summary of Peter W. Liesch’s Article “the Evolution of the International Business Field: a Scientometric Investigation of Articles Published in Its Premier Journal”

Summary of Peter W. Liesch’s article “The evolution of the international business field: a scientometric investigation of articles published in its premier journal”

This article is based on the publications of the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) from 1970 until 2008. The author wanted to follow the evolution of International Business research topics that were discussed in the articles of this journal during different periods of time. In this research a new tool was introduced – Leximancer. Leximancer is a software text analytic tool, which uses empirically validated mathematical algorithms to make two determinations:

* the most frequently used concepts within a body of text;

* the relationships between these concepts.

The main question of the research is: How has the field of international business evolved, as reflected in articles published in its premier journal, the Journal of International Business Studies?

That scientific research tool showed the five concept themes that emerged over the six editorships:

1. Exchange rates;

2. Manufacturing;

3. Methods;

4. Performance;

5. Strategy;

6. Geographic scope.

Based on the Leximancer program data the illustrative maps were drawn in order to show vividly the overlapping of different concepts during different periods of time.

The research shows the evolution of IB studies of MNEs, thus, first there were descriptive studies that brought an understanding of the scope of the activities and importance MNEs. In the early period, 1976–1986, MNEs were associated with ‘competitiveness’, ‘theory’, and ‘foreign investment’; in the latter period of 1998–2008, they were associated with ‘knowledge development’, ‘transaction costs’, ‘international production’, and ‘resource advantage’, studies become more multidisciplinary.

It is also important to mention that the Beamish editorship was a transition between the earlier emphasis on macro environmental issues to the more recent...