Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)© 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. • DOI: 10.1002/tie.20406

INTRODUCTION

A s we noted in the call for papers for this special issue on emerging trends and trajectories in inter-national business, the international business dis-

cipline is currently going through an interesting phase. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the international business literature and the interplay between various mar-ket and nonmarket forces, the domain of international business theory and practice is becoming increasingly blurry and difficult to ascertain. The diversity of papers selected for this special issue of Thunderbird International Business Review reflects the multidisciplinary nature of the field of international business and should challenge our thinking about future theoretical and conceptual devel-opments in the field.

The first article, by Udo Zander (Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden) and titled “Game-Park Capital-ism, Globalization, and Multinational Companies: An

Overview and a Research Agenda,” provides fascinating insights into the “modernizing and reglobalizing world” through a series of metaphors: “savannah capitalism” in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century; “the zoo” during the post-1918 interwar period; and “game-park capitalism” post-1945, where international business is characterized as a learning race. Zander concludes, “Studying the interaction of new and old international companies competing and cooperating in the relatively stable and understandable context of ‘game-park capital-ism,’ where there will be both ‘winners and losers’ . . . presents a formidable opportunity for scholars to under-stand human and organizational learning in a context where categorization and issues of social identity are at their peak.”

The second article, by Snejina Michailova (Univer-sity of Auckland, New Zealand) and titled “The ‘Tortu-

By

Peter J. Dowling

Sharif As-Saber

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Emerging Trends and Trajectories in International Business:Introducing the Special Issue

Correspondence to: Peter J. Dowling, School of Management, La Trobe University, Donald Whitehead Building—Room 130, Bundoora Victoria 3086, Austra-lia, +61 3 9479 2731 (phone), +61 3 9479 5971 (fax), p.dowling@latrobe.edu.au.

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thunderbird international Business review Vol. 53, No. 3 May/June 2011 DOI: 10.1002/tie

The final article, by Peter Zettinig (University of Turku, Finland) and Zsuzsanna Vincze (University of Umeå, Finland) and titled “The Domain of International Business: Futures and Future Relevance of International Business,” reports the results of a Delphi study of 35 international business (IB) scholars and managers who focused on the most important future research issues of IB. Importantly, there was geographical diversity among the participants, with 9 members from the Americas, 13 from Europe and Africa, and 13 from the Asia-Pacific re-gion. Six factors received sufficient support by the panel to enter a final list of “issues highly relevant for IB during the next decade”: (1) big emerging markets; (2) inter-activity of multitudes of (cultural) values; (3) alternative approaches to IB strategy; (4) balancing global and local activities; (5) innovations in business systems; and (6) managing complexities in globally operating organiza-tions. The article concludes by using this list of issues to examine the role and relevance of IB as a discipline that contributes through (1) observation of complex inter-acting issues to define phenomena that affect business activities in international contexts and (2) integrating different discipline-based theories in order to extend the understanding of these phenomena. Thus, the IB scholar can be positioned as an “issue identifier” and a “knowl-edge integrator” within the business school.

Overall, these five articles collectively provide a diverse and innovative response to our call for papers for this spe-cial issue on emerging trends and trajectories in interna-tional business, and we are confident that the readership of TIBR will find these articles of interest. We thank our con-tributors and the reviewers of these articles for their efforts.

ous Evolution’ of International Management Research: Critical Issues on the Way to Maturity,” examines the evolution of the field of international management (IM) and outlines five critical issues that the international management field faces on its way to maturity. Noting the various debates and discussions within the IM field, Michailova states, “Along with taking the identity strug-gles seriously, rather than suppressing them, the IM research community can utilize to the best of its abilities the fact that it has two powerful parents, international business and management.”

The third article, by Cherrie Zhu (Monash Univer-sity, Australia) and her colleagues and titled “Extending the Investment Development Path Model to Include the Human Environment Factor,” looks at the late John Dun-ning’s call to include the “human environment” (HE) in international business theory in general and the invest-ment development path (IDP) model in particular. Zhu et al. discuss how the IDP model can include the human environment factor and use China as an example of how domestic and global HRM practices can be developed and utilized.

The fourth article, by Peter Enderwick (Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand) and titled “Un-derstanding the Rise of Global Protectionism,” explores the recent rise in protectionism and how this differs from traditional forms of trade protectionism. Issues covered include the influence of economic nationalism; the scope of protection shifting beyond trade to also encompass for-eign direct investment, offshore sourcing, and migration; and the rise of economic patriotism and national security as key concerns for governments.

Peter J. Dowling (PhD, Flinders University of South Australia) is a professor of human resource management at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

Sharif As-Saber (PhD, University of Tasmania) is an associate professor of international business at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.