Then we look at a couple of areas where research has benefited the practicing firms in those fields before concluding that there has to be an active collaboration between researchers and practitioners in order to ensure that both parties gain from the knowledge of each other towards their individual success. Introduction International management is the concept of gathering various resources in managing the various aspects of trade, resource utilization, practical applicability and various concerns in the fields of Commerce and business.International management plays a vital role in determining the economic stability and development of corporate firms having cross country/cross border business activities. Its theoretical studies help in understanding the main ideas behind the whole issue clearly and give us a better visibility of management internationally.
Management may be defined as the ability to resolve problems and gaining control over the stability and progress of a particular field. It helps in increasing the potential and credibility of practical implications and professional values.The theoretical concepts of international management provide various ways of improving the practice of it in the world of management. What is International Management? Before we start answering the main topic question, we should take a minute to understand and analyse the meaning of International Management. In simple practical terms, IM can be classified as the practice of managing business operations in more than one country. On the same lines, IM research can be termed as the study of IM practices & scope for future advancements.
But on an academic perspective, the meaning of IM seems to be having various meanings. The main three definitions are as below Werner (2002) categorizes the field into a) Pure IM research b) Comparative management studies and c) Foreign domestic studies. Kirkman & Law (2005) indicate that any one of the three criterias from 1) At least one author is a non-American scholar, 2) The sample is collected outside North America, or 3) The topic is related to IM or CCM issues. Tung & van Witteloostuijn (2008) argue that criteria 1) and 2) are inappropriate from JIBS’s perspective and only 3) is relevant.In 2002, Werner concluded that International Management, in its research context consists of 12 categories (figure 01). Among them the top three researched categories such as Foreign Direct Investment, Internationalization and Entry Mode Decisions.
They have been the hot topics for research among the top management journals and can be expected to continue in this trend in the near future too. Though a lot of research is being done in the field of IM, there has been some criticism that the research being done is not sufficiently converted into practice.IM scholars have found ways to share their findings with fellow peers. Most of the knowledge sharing is done in classrooms, which contributes to the field of management practice indirectly. Another way of converting theory to practice is thorough publishing their findings in leading academic journals. This second method of knowledge transfer is drawing a lot of criticism and attention.
There is evidence that many practitioners do not implement research findings into their management strategies and practices (Mowday, 1997). This trend is often referred to as the research-practice gap.Figure 01: Categories of International Management Articles. Source: Werner, S.
(2002). Recent developments in international management research: A review of 20 top management journals. Journal of Management. Pg 280. Academic observers have noticed that there is a considerable gap between the academic research findings and the practice if these findings. The principal symptom has been found to be that the research methods and techniques used by scholars have become more advanced and that they have, over time, turned out to be less useful for practitioners towards solving the problems they face (Rynes S.
Bartunek J. , & Daft R. , 2001). The Academy of Management Journal (AMJ) states that the criteria for articles to be published in the journal should make strong empirical contributions. Submissions that do not offer an empirical contribution will not be reviewed. But in reality, these contributions appear in a section at the end of AMJ papers that discusses on implications for practicing managers (Bartunek, J.
2007). Evidences suggest that practitioners do not turn to generally look towards academics or their research findings in management practices.Similarly, academics rarely turn towards practitioners looking for inspirations in setting their research questions or for interpreting their research findings. Given this scenario, it’s not surprising to find the gap between academic research information and the real world management practices in companies.
It should also be noted that such research-practice gaps are not limited to the field of IM. It is existing in all fields of studies where there are both researchers and practitioners.When academic papers are written, they are mostly done by scholars who are looking at publishing their work on reputed journals such as Academy of Management, Journal of International Business Studies, and journal of management, etc. This if often done in collaboration with co scholars instead of practitioners. The reviewing and publishing authority also lies with such similar scholars who are in the editorial board.
Hence there is no say for the practicing managers towards what needs to be researched and what is relevant for the practical problems faced by them in the business environment.Due to the rigorous requirements for the research papers to be published in the journals, the researchers mostly fail to elaborate on the practical implications of their research. This doesn’t exactly inspire any confidence on the managers towards the research papers. Some of the scholars feel that this gap is due to knowledge transfer problem which can be solved by more efficient methods of transferring academic research into publications, which the managers in the practical world can refer or relate to as tools for completing the tasks at hand.
Another group of the scholars however feel that the gap is due to insufficient knowledge production. It is assumed to be solved by more mutual research practices done by academics and practitioners (Shapiro D. , Kirkman B. , & Courtney H. , 2007).
Practitioners feel that most of the day-to-day challenges faced by them are not researched and studied in management research. They feel that this is because the topics chosen by the academics are often without having the knowledge of the requirements and problems faced by the practicing managers.Even if the management research is done on topics that would be useful for the practicing managers, the results are found to be difficult to understand and act upon them. Hence much of the important research findings which can be helpful to the managers go waste. Changes to the political and economic conditions have now translated towards changing the ambience for an alliance between academic scholars and practicing managers.Extreme competition among organizations has increased the pressure towards performance and efficiency have now led to practitioners being more open towards any ideas, academic or otherwise, which can make them and the organization more effective to win over the competition (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2000).
Also, many organizations are cutting down on their staff strength creating a gap that is increasingly being filled by academic scholars (Powell & Owen-Smith, 1998). Governmental policies also can be seen changing in order to meet the challenge of global competition.For example, tax breaks are being provided for corporate companies which channel funds to research institutes which require industry-research institute partnership as a condition, thereby encouraging collaboration between industry and academia. Such initiatives have resulted in practical managers being more involved in academic research.
Such initiatives have resulted in practising managers to be more involved in academic research. Increased recruitment of academics by the private industry, increased donations towards universities promoting research and active participation in academic boards are some examples of the results.Organisations which have strong links to such research institutes are now turning out to be in the best possible situation to solve the important issues that come up which can slow down growth of the organisation. It can be concluded that the solutions must acknowledge the following facts: (1) academics and managers do live in different worlds, so that the gap is quite wide; (2) solutions must address both lost before translation and lost in translation problems; and (3) some of the most important drivers of the gap or shouldn’t be impacted, at least in the near future (Shapiro D.
Kirkman B. , & Courtney H. , 2007). The partnership between the scholars and the practicing managers should be a continuous process instead of being an event driven one.
It should involve person to person interaction and should be focusing on research programs rather than research alone. Contributions from theory to practice As much as we can criticise the fact that there is a noticeable divide between research and practice in the field of management, as mentioned before, measures are being taken to reduce this divide.We can now see a lot of alliances between academic institutions and international firms created to complement each other and advance further in their respective fields. Factors such as the rising global competitiveness, increasing need for innovation in products and processes, lower R&D expenditure and technological transfer opportunities have become the main reasons for the alliances between these two groups.
Among the mostly researched topics among the categories of IM, Entry Mode Decisions is one of the mostly reviewed and discussed topics.We can see a tremendous increase in global trading between firms. With the trade barriers going down and new markets such as India, China and Eastern Europe opening its door for business, the trend is likely to continue. This growth has led IM to become increasingly popular for both scholars and practitioners today. Forces of globalisation are pushing Multi National Firms (MNF) to look at expanding outside their home market.
The main issue of concern for these MNF’s is establishing effective boundaries for the firms to operate beyond their home market.IM research on International entry mode looks at this issue by exploring the method of operation firms can use to enter foreign markets. The research is done on points on entering the market through contracts (suppliers, distributors and franchisees), extending abroad, setting up subsidiaries, and joint ventures with other local firms, or go in as a wholly owned subsidiary. Research on the entry mode is necessary towards setting up the correct boundaries for the firm as it has significant implications.
Also, it is very difficult for a firm to change its position from one mode of entry to another once it enters a new market One notable trend is that much of the research on entry mode choice had moved its focus from the choice between foreign direct investment and licensing to the choice of foreign direct investment mode. Within this stream, several researchers have focused on the choice between greenfield and acquisition entries, while others have focused on the choice of subsidiary ownership structure.A handful of researchers have examined the financial performance and survival implications of entry mode choice (Lu, J. , 2003).
Organizational learning/Knowledge management (OL/KM) theories have been applied to the research of international market expansion, entry mode choice, inter-organizational learning in an international joint venture, intra-organizational knowledge transfer within a multinational company and inter-organizational imitation in market entry (Lu, J. , 2003).There have been of research has been conducted towards analysing the entry mode conditions for firms based on different context such as cultural background of home and host country, market attractiveness, uncertainty of the host country environment, legal environment of the host country and competitive situation. The findings have assisted in managers in establishing on the entry mode decisions on the preferred country easily. Another area where IM research has contributed towards practice can be seen on Internationalization and trade.
In 2003, Malhotra, Ulgado & Agarwal, stated that Internationalization of firms is occurring at an ever increasing pace. They continued to point out that in the past 20 years, firms have changed their orientation from domestic to international; they have shifted from multi-domestic marketing to global marketing. International trade policies and regulation are largely based on work in economics and political science (Hitt, M, 2005). Public policies have gained significantly from research from these fields.International trade policies have got added values from research in IM.
For example, research has shown that firms from developed countries learn valuable knowledge from their operations, partners, and/or acquired firms in emerging market countries (Hitt, M, 2005). They gain a lot of important knowledge to local market conditions and reactions over and above the access to the local markets. The firms are then able to spread this knowledge to operations they have in other countries enhancing the values and operations greatly.We can see this by the keen interest they show towards locating R&D centres in foreign shores.
The R&D operations then succeed by developing products and services deemed valuable in the international markets they are based at. They also maximize their returns by manufacturing products and market knowledge suitable for other international markets as well. Competitiveness of firms in global markets along with economic performance in local environment can be improved through research on such management policies further encouraging the practical implementation of these polices.Another part of this research has been seen to valuable for government with their policies which centre on the development and competitive nature of firms from the emerging countries.
Such knowledge can be seen used in the recent times by firms from China and India which enters into the developing countries as well as the developing countries. These can be noticed with the firms making acquisitions which have made them be stood up and taken notice of.The strategic actions implemented by them are based on the knowledge they attained over time by looking at the way how Western firms work in their own backyard. We can see more and more MNC’s from developing countries becoming inventive and practical in their approach to international markets.
Unless there is a major political problem between U. S and countries such as India and China, it is unlikely that you will see the government of U. S denying access to MNC’s from these countries in setting up bases in U. S.
Given the continuing growth of many emerging economies, along with increases in both their inflow and outflow of foreign direct investments, it is unlikely that there will be a slowdown or reversal of this globalization trend in the near future (Tsui, A. 2007). We will only see more of globalisation due to intense and competitive nature of the business environment leading to expansion of firms to new markets throughout the world with the amount of research that is being conducted on these topics. Conclusion IM as a field of management has come a long way both academically and practically.
There is still a growing need for further research to be done in this field given the fast growing nature of globalisation. As firms look at expansion moves, they will also need information on how to implement such moves on a sustainable scale. The information they seek can be provided by scholars who are researching about these fields. Although there is a research – practice gap in the field of IM (or any other similar field for that matter), efforts are being made by both parties towards narrowing that gap.
The efforts made can be seen to be making impact in the field of IM on a practical sense. I have discussed only a couple of areas where the contribution the research of IM has provided has proved valuable for the practicing managers. If we look at the rest of the areas, we will see the same trend continuing in various levels. Summing up, it can be said that further collaboration is encouraged between both parties in order for mutual benefits.
