Adam Smith Business School

Professor Catherine Welch, Trinity College Dublin

'Reconciling theory and context: How the case study can set a new agenda for international business research' (Co-authored by E. Paavilainen-Mantymaki, R. Piekkar and E. Plakoyiannak) 
Wednesday 13 April 2022, 2pm - 3pm
Zoom online seminar  

Register at business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk

Abstract 

In our decade award-winning article from 2011 we argued that it is not possible to explain social phenomena without consideration of their contexts. However, a persistent assumption in international business (IB) is that theories should be context-free. This affects the methodological choices we make, favouring the inductive theory-building approach to theorising from case studies. In 2011, we proposed an alternative – contextualised explanations – that in our view better utilises the main strength of the case study: reconciling theory and context. In this Retrospective, we further develop our original argument that context is essential, and not a hindrance, to theorising, as well as elaborate on how decontextualisation impoverishes theoretical insights. In order to achieve contextualised explanation, we offer four alternatives: process research, historical research, the extended case method, and configurational theorising. We argue that, for the IB field to take contextualisation seriously, we need an open debate about what theory is and how we produce it. We hope this paper will broaden the scope of our discussion from the need for methodological pluralism to the need for theoretical pluralism, thereby setting a new agenda for future IB research.

Biography

Catherine Welch is Professor of Strategic Management at Trinity Business School. She is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Aalto University. Catherine’s research has concentrated on two areas: qualitative research methodology and process approaches to studying firm internationalisation. Her work has appeared in leading journals in international business and management. She has published papers and special issues in the full range of major international business journals. Catherine is the current Book Review Editor of the Journal of International Business Studies and is a member of the Journal’s Research Methods Advisory Committee 2023-2025. She is an Associate Editor of Organizational Research Methods. She is Vice-President, Communications, and Newsletter Editor for the Academy of InternationaI Business (AIB) Research Methods Shared Interest Group (RM-SIG), of which she was a founding member. From 2022-2025 she will serve on the AIB’s board as Vice-President Programs. She also serves on the AIB’s Buckley and Casson AIB Dissertation Award Committee. She was elected as a Fellow of the AIB in 2022 in recognition of her scholarly contributions to the field.

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Further information: Katie Allan-Mackenzie at business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk

First published: 28 March 2022