Qualitative

Research in
International
Business
by Y. Doz
Summary by A. Klein
In his 2011 paper in Journal of International Business Studies, Yves Doz tries to
restore the balance toward qualitative research in international business (IB). So
far, IB is strongly underpinned by quantitative research, thus, causing rather
uncommon appearance of qualitative methods in the research field. This pattern is
somewhat contradictive to the nature of IB, which is explicitly linked to various
disciplines and is a liberally open field as such. Therefore, Doz presents how
qualitative research can contribute to IB, assaying approaches for high-quality
qualitative research and suggesting potential research areas where qualitative
research might be of particular advantage.
In the beginning, Doz draws the readers attention to the reasons why qualitative
methods have been underrepresented in the IB research. The author outlines both,
inherent and rather superficial explanations of limited use of qualitative research
methods. On the one hand, the complexity and the time-consuming research
character related to qualitative methods, being inbred in clinical studies of
international companies, have discouraged researchers from implementing
qualitative case-based approach. On the other hand, the unwillingness of top journals
to publish qualitative IB-related studies revives the predominance of quantitative
research methods in the field. Subsequently, PhD students are naturally deterred
from qualitative research methods in IB, based on the high risks related to these
methods. According to Doz, certain stamina and willingness may be required to
take these risks. Yet, the author disregards an important aspect that, apart from
these characteristics, reputation as well as previous academic and/ or scientific
experience might play a crucial role for a young researcher to succeed in IB with a
qualitative research approach.

Then, Doz outlines the strong potential of qualitative research in contributing to the
field of IB. First of all, with the qualitative methods, researchers can facilitate theory
development which is currently deficient in IB studies, given the prevailing theory
borrowing and collocations from other research fields or disciplines, (for example,
transaction cost theory). Secondly, qualitative research can add to theory building via
fetching a variety of theoretical lenses to bear on the phenomena being
investigated and methodically likening the character and degree of insights
stipulated by these various theories. Lastly, qualitative methods can also strongly
contribute to the process of outlining and emphasizing of various theory scopes by
thorough descriptions and, thus, be as an important tool for effectual communication
of theory findings.
So, Doz lists the above-mentioned contributions of qualitative research approach to
the field of IB, which however do not serve as ultimate catalysts in gaining
trustworthiness and overcoming rather tarnished qualitative research issues related
to the lack of credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability.