Advancing interdisciplinary research: Insights from the JIBS special issue

Birkinshaw, J, Cheng, J L C, Lessard, D R and Thomas, D C (2014) Advancing interdisciplinary research: Insights from the JIBS special issue. Journal of International Business Studies, 45. pp. 643-648. ISSN 0047-2506

Abstract

Twenty-five years ago, Dunning articulated a vision for greater interdisciplinary grounding in international business (IB) research. Motivated by his foresight, this special issue aims to encourage research that explicitly combines ideas from different disciplines, with a view to creating new integrative theories with greater explanatory power than those based on a single discipline. Five articles selected from a pool of 60 submissions are presented in the special issue, each with its own distinctive interdisciplinary contribution to expanding our knowledge about an important IB phenomenon. In editing the special issue, the editors developed a new understanding of the opportunities and challenges in conducting interdisciplinary research. These insights are reported in the current editorial essay. We conclude by discussing four approaches to interdisciplinary inquiry observed across the five accepted papers: (1) addressing a new phenomenon, (2) asking a fresh question, (3) finding a better answer and (4) contributing to a base discipline.