Introduction

This book appears at a time when the academic community of international business scholars is taking stock. Numerous pieces have appeared which examine, or question, the future of the discipline. Chapter 2 of this volume represents my contribution to this debate. It questions the current direction of research and suggests that international business needs ‘a big question’ to answer. It suggests that research in international business has been at its most successful when it has been a collective enterprise focused on a key empirical issue in the evolving global economy.