3. Science’s Reproducibility and Replicability Crisis: A Commentary

There is little question that the International Business community, alongside its social science counterparts, is facing a challenge to contemporary practices in the design and reporting of empirical research. Aguinis, Cascio, and Rarnani (Journal of International Business Studies 48: 653–663, 2017) build on this debate to identify five aspects of the research process that can be improved to reduce the severity of the so-called reproducibility and replicability crisis. Without disagreeing with the core of these comments, I would like to suggest that the nature of the challenge is rooted in the foundations of our core research premises and accepted practices and as such requires a more substantial re-thinking of how we design and implement the empirical sections of our research. This commentary touches on a few of these potential changes to the research process, with the full recognition that the debate on what needs to be done is still in its infancy.