Historical Research on International Business, Management and Strategy

Abstract

History matters. Recently, there has been an increase of interest in the use of historical research in the fields of international business, management and strategy; however, the use of this approach is still underexplored when compared to the use of more quantitative methodologies. Historical research seeks the identification, location, evaluation, and synthesis of data from the past to unveil previous events and, also, to relate them to both present and future, contributing to the understanding and explanation of theories. This chapter reviews the foundations of the historical research method in international business, management, and strategy and proposes a framework to guide historical research in these fields. Contrariwise to the traditional argument that history is theory resistant, at least from an independent-dependent and a context-invariant standpoint that so often characterizes economic approaches, historical research can contribute to a better understanding of the business phenomena.