A strong critique of the international business field is that it has been “running out of steam” because IB scholars have failed to engage with emerging paradigm shifts in IB practice and management theory. IB research requires rejuvenation with timely, unique, controversial, and challenging new research questions. IB scholars need to move beyond incremental improvements to existing research agendas and focus on questions that are fundamentally new to the field. With this essay, we address four pressing topics (Buckley, Doh, & Benischke, 2017), namely: (1) the resurgence of populism, decoupling, and globalization; (2) disruptive technologies and digitalization; (3) sustainable development goals; and (4) the changing power relationships between firms, and between firms and governments. Our aim is to provide direct avenues for relevant new research that challenges the existing orthodoxy across the IB field. As part of this process, we introduce the papers in this special issue.

中文翻译：

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挑战国际商业研究的正统：“新”研究领域的方向


对国际商业领域的强烈批评是，它已经“失去了动力”，因为IB学者未能参与IB实践和管理理论中新兴的范式转变。 IB 研究需要通过及时的、独特的、有争议的和具有挑战性的新研究问题来复兴。 IB学者需要超越对现有研究议程的渐进式改进，并关注该领域的全新问题。在本文中，我们讨论了四个紧迫主题（Buckley、Doh 和 Benischke，2017），即：（1）民粹主义、脱钩和全球化的复苏； (2) 颠覆性技术和数字化； （三）可持续发展目标； (4)企业之间、企业与政府之间不断变化的权力关系。我们的目标是为挑战 IB 领域现有正统观念的相关新研究提供直接途径。作为此过程的一部分，我们将介绍本期特刊中的论文。