current research topics in international business

200 International Business Topics

Exploring international business can unlock a world of opportunities and challenges for companies ready to expand their horizons. In this article, we’ll dive into 200 dynamic topics that will give you a comprehensive insight into the global business landscape.

The Impact of Globalization on Small Businesses
Understanding International Trade Laws
The Role of the World Trade Organization in Global Commerce
The Rise of Emerging Markets in the Global Economy
The Effects of Currency Exchange Rates on International Business
The Importance of Cross-Cultural Communication in International Business
Outsourcing: Boon or Bane for the Global Economy?
The Impact of Digital Transformation on Global Business Strategies
Analyzing the Global Supply Chain Management Challenges
The Influence of Political Instability on International Trade
Multinational Corporations: Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
The Role of International Financial Institutions in Economic Development
Emerging Trends in International Marketing
Protectionism vs. Free Trade: Which is the way forward?
The Effect of International Sanctions on Trade Relations
E-Commerce: Changing the Face of International Business
The Challenges of International Human Resources Management
Corporate Governance in the Context of Global Business
Foreign Direct Investment: Trends and Impacts
The Relationship between International Business and Environmental Sustainability
Climate Change: A New Frontier for International Business Strategy
The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on International Business
The Dynamics of International Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances
The Role of Multilateral Trade Agreements in Shaping Business
The Effect of Brexit on International Business in the UK and EU
Crisis Management in International Business
International Business Negotiation Strategies and Tactics
The Growth of International Franchising
Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions: Opportunities and Challenges
The Role of Cultural Intelligence in International Business Success
The Competitive Advantage of Nations: A Study of Porter’s Diamond Model
The Influence of International Business on Global Politics
The Effects of Global Pandemics on International Trade and Investment
Big Data and Analytics in International Business Decision Making
The Role of Expatriates in International Business Development
The Significance of International Trade Blocks and Economic Unions
The Impact of Social Media on International Brand Management
Women in International Business: Challenges and Opportunities
Legal and Ethical Issues in International Business
The Importance of Intellectual Property Rights in Global Business
Sustainable Development Goals and International Business Practices
The Future of International Business Post COVID-19
The Role of International Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth
The Challenges of Managing a Global Workforce
The Importance of Logistics and Transportation in International Trade
The Impact of Technological Innovation on Global Business Operations
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Offshoring
International Business and the Fight Against Corruption
The Emergence of China as a Global Business Powerhouse
The Role of International Affairs in Business Education
The Use of International Business Simulation Games in Learning
The Effects of Terrorism on International Business Strategies
Regulation of International Business: A Comparative Analysis
The Role of Language in International Business Expansion
The Influence of International Business on Culture and Society
The Significance of BRICS Countries in the World Economy
The Role of Innovation in Sustaining Competitive Advantage Internationally
The Impact of Exchange Rate Volatility on Global Business
The Importance of Ethical Supply Chains in International Business
The Challenges of International Business in the Aerospace Industry
The Significance of Trade Missions in Expanding International Business
The Role of Governments in Promoting International Trade
The Impact of International Business on Local Economies
The Role of Diaspora in International Business Expansion
Cybersecurity Challenges in International Business Operations
The Impact of International Sporting Events on Local Businesses
The Role of International Business in Reducing Global Poverty
The Influence of Non-Governmental Organizations on International Trade Policies
International Business and the Rise of the Gig Economy
Cross-Border E-commerce: Trends and Regulatory Challenges
The Role of Immigrant Entrepreneurs in International Business
The Impact of Multicultural Teams in Global Organizations
The Challenges and Benefits of Doing Business in Africa
Foreign Exchange Risk Management in International Business
The Role of Microfinance in International Development
Analyzing the Business Models of International E-commerce Giants
The Impact of International Trade on Agriculture
The Role of Corporate Diplomacy in International Business Relations
International Business and the Rise of Consumerism
The Impact of International Business on Global Healthcare
The Challenges of Sustainable Tourism in International Business
The Influence of Religion on International Business Practices
The Role of International Business in Promoting Gender Equality
The Impact of International Business on Education and Knowledge Transfer
The Influence of International Trade on Food Security
Digital Currency and Its Impact on International Trade
The Rise of International Business Incubators and Accelerators
The Role of International Business in Urban Development
The Impact of Globalization on Indigenous Cultures and Businesses
The Effect of International Business on Peace and Security
The Role of International Business in Renewable Energy Development
The Significance of Bilateral Investment Treaties in International Business
The Challenges of Managing International Business Ethics across Cultures
Global Sourcing Strategies and Their Impact on Businesses
The Role of International Business in Combating Climate Change
The Challenges Facing International Business in the Retail Sector
The Importance of International Certifications and Standards in Business
The Role of Trade Unions in International Business Environments
The Impact of International Business on Rural Development
The Role of SMEs in International Economics and Trade
The Challenges of Building a Global Brand Identity
International Business Education: Curriculum and Pedagogy
The Influence of Digital Payments on International Business Transactions
The Role of International Business in the Pharmaceutical Industry
The Impact of Cultural Differences on Product and Service Design
The Economics of International Business and Foreign Exchange Markets
The Role of Commodity Markets in International Business
The Ethics of Data Privacy in International Business
The Challenges of Due Diligence in International Business
The Role of International Standards in Quality Assurance
The Impact of International Lobbying on Business Regulations
The Challenges of International Business in Conflict Zones
The Influence of Global Demographic Trends on International Business
The Impact of Political Relations on International Business Strategies
The Effect of Natural Disasters on International Supply Chains
The Importance of Business Incubators in International Entrepreneurship
The Role of Technology Transfer in International Development
The Challenges of International Business in the Textile and Garment Industry
The Impact of Intellectual Property Theft on International Business
The Role of Global Environmental Agreements in Business Operations
The Influence of National Culture on Corporate Governance Practices
The Significance of Social Entrepreneurship in International Business
The Challenges of Foreign Market Entry Strategies
The Role of Bilateral Trade Agreements in Shaping Global Business
The Impact of Telecommuting on International Business Operations
The Influence of Social Impact Investing on International Business
The Role of International Business in Global Food Distribution
The Impact of Corporate Social Investing on International Relations
The Importance of Transparency in International Business Conduct
The Role of Blockchain Technology in International Business Transactions
The Impact of Aviation on Global Business Connectivity
The Challenges of International Business Negotiations with Sovereign States
The Role of International Markets in Commodities Trade
The Influence of National Policies on International Business Operations
The Challenges of Scaling Small Businesses Internationally
The Importance of Global Regulatory Compliance in Business
The Role of International Collaboration in Science and Technology
The Impact of Sovereign Wealth Funds on International Investment
The Influence of Language Barriers on Global Business Expansion
The Importance of Cultural Diplomacy in International Business Relations
The Impact of International Business on Global Economic Inequality
The Role of International Business in Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy
The Importance of Location in Global Business Strategy
The Influence of Consumer Behavior on International Marketing
The Challenges of Running a Multinational Corporation
The Role of Export Credit Agencies in International Trade
The Impact of Automation on Global Employment and International Business
The Importance of International Trade Exhibitions and Fairs
The Role of Global Cities as Hubs of International Business
The Impact of Globalization on National Identity and Business Practices
The Influence of Trade Protectionism on Global Supply Chains
The Challenges of International Business in the Luxury Goods Sector
The Role of Trade Embargoes in International Relations
The Impact of Corporate Acquisitions on International Market Dynamics
The Importance of Cultural Adaptation in International Business Strategy
The Influence of Exports on National Economies
The Role of Consumer Advocacy in International Business Regulation
The Impact of International Business on the Development of Technology
The Challenges of International Taxation and Business Finance
The Importance of Social Responsibility in International Business Expansion
The Role of International Economic Organizations in Global Governance
The Impact of Foreign Labor Policies on International Business
The Influence of Nationalism on Global Business Practices
The Role of International Business in Promoting Fair Trade
The Impact of Cyber Espionage on International Business Confidence
The Importance of Global Partnerships in Business Innovation
The Role of International Arbitration in Business Disputes
The Influence of Global Media on International Business Perception
The Role of International Sales and Operations Planning
The Challenges and Opportunities of International E-learning Businesses
The Importance of Cross-Border Data Flow in International Business
The Role of International Business in the Circular Economy
The Impact of Space Commerce on International Business Strategies
The Influence of Emerging Technologies on Global Trade
The Role of International Mergers in Industry Consolidation
The Impact of Cultural Heritage on International Tourism Business
The Importance of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in International Market Research
The Role of International Environmental Agreements in Business Sustainability
The Influence of Digital Transformation on International Supply Chain Management
The Role of Digital Platforms in International Trade Efficiency
The Impact of Language Translation Technology on Global Business Communication
The Importance of Business Analytics in International Expansion
The Role of Corporate Philanthropy in International Business Reputation
The Impact of Social Innovation on International Business Models
The Influence of International Business on Global Urbanization Patterns
The Role of Ethical Investment in International Business Development
The Impact of International Product Standards on Consumer Choice
The Importance of Brand Protection in the Global Marketplace
The Role of International Expositions in Promoting Trade and Industry
The Impact of Political Campaigns on International Business Decisions
The Importance of Global Trade Compliance in Corporate Strategy
The Influence of International Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
The Impact of Demographic Changes on Global Business Strategies
The Role of Global Risk Management in International Business
The Importance of Sustainable Finance in International Business Growth
The Role of Digital Identification in Global Commerce
The Impact of Connectivity on International Business Collaboration
The Influence of Cultural Norms on Business Operations and Etiquette
The Role of Big Data in Understanding International Market Dynamics
The Impact of Global Economic Shifts on International Business Strategy

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International Business Dissertation Topics

Published by Owen Ingram at January 4th, 2023 , Revised On April 16, 2024

Most students find it difficult to select the perfect international business dissertation topic for their dissertation project. In fact, many students end up choosing very narrow and specific topics due to the vastness of the field and the growing issues within the field of international business.

We understand that choosing a suitable international business dissertation topic may not be a straightforward task for many students, so we have compiled a list of the perfect international business issues you can explore and address as part of your research.

We aim to empower our students with the knowledge and abilities needed to choose an international business research paper or dissertation topic. At ResearchProspect , we help students with their research proposal and the full dissertation paper.

You may want to read about our business writers to see how we can help ease your workload.

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Business Dissertation Topics
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Management Dissertation Topics
Operations Management Dissertation Topics

International Business Dissertation Topics For 2024

MNCs’ use of a standardised approach to business strategy
Impact of the coronavirus outbreak on global business operations
Management and globalisation governance appendix
Factors affecting MNCs’ decision about their corporate political approach in emerging economies
effects of corporate globalisation on their foreign business activities
MNCs and the consequences of culture
Effects of the evolving international legal environment on MNCs
MNCs’ methods for entering emerging markets
Challenges to the global banking system’s security brought on by Toyota’s Total Quality Management
Foreign workers’ challenges and opportunities in a global strategy
The value of English as an international business language and the reasons Chinese companies win contracts in Africa
A quantitative study of the Canadian Honey Industry
the US auto industry’s expansion under the Trump Administration
fake honey’s effects on the world’s honey business
Management quality in global markets
Coronavirus and BREXIT’s effects on the world’s aviation sector
Impact of corporate privatisation on worldwide marketplaces
Branding’s function in the global tourism sector
Information technology management for global businesses
Effects of efficient human resource management in global businesses
Impact of efficient channels for corporate communication in global companies
Acceptableness of government engagement in creating CSR restrictions
Result of senior management interference in a company’s plans
When accidents are every day, can the economic model for developing driverless cars still be viable?
How social media branding gives companies a competitive edge in the age of globalisation
Value ramifications of multinationals’ cross-border expansion trends in emerging markets
How do public disclosure policies affect corporate operations management in a more globalised society?
The elements affecting the success of building firms in the United Arab Emirates
Important aspects for Carrefour to succeed in the current global market
financial options for developing small and medium-sized businesses
The impact of legislation on the marketing and production of tobacco.
Is the government gaining revenue from the war?
Companies that are successful both nationally and internationally.
It is acquiring knowledge of the global IT market and sector.
The impact of artificial intelligence on the workforce.

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ResearchProspect writers can send several custom topic ideas to your email address. Once you have chosen a topic that suits your needs and interests, you can order for our dissertation outline service which will include a brief introduction to the topic, research questions , literature review , methodology , expected results , and conclusion . The dissertation outline will enable you to review the quality of our work before placing the order for our full dissertation writing service!

Final Words

Choosing the best international business dissertation topic in your graduate programme is a prerequisite to writing a first class dissertation paper.

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How to find international business dissertation topics.

For international business dissertation topics:

Study global economic trends.
Analyze cross-border challenges.
Explore trade and market dynamics.
Research cultural influences.
Examine multinational strategies.
Select a topic aligning with your expertise and career aspirations.

60 Exceptional International Business Topics To Score High

International business is today one of the most eyed professions in the world. As businesses continue to invest globally, it becomes necessary to explore markets in other parts of the world. But i t is not easy to write a research paper for a high grade. With that in mind, we explore global business topics to help you complete your business paper in no time.

What Is International Business?

It is an academic field that gives students an understanding of globalization in the different business management practices found worldwide. International business also prepares the students for graduate careers working abroad or in organizations engaged in business on a global scale.

How To Write International Business Topics

To outsmart your peers in such a paper, following the guidelines below in choosing a top-notch topic:

Have a topic that you have an interest in Avoiding picking narrow or broad-based topics Choose one that is based on the current affairs in the world of business Explore annual reports, periodicals, and news articles for unique topic ideas Ensure that the topic has sufficient sources

The structure of your topic will also determine whether it is viable or not. Reading previous international business topics will also give you an idea of coming up with a top-rated topic. However, we have 60 impressive ideas to jumpstart your international business paper.

Captivating International Business Topics

Why do most international companies prefer candidates with a Master’s degree?
The role of digitization in enhancing international businesses
How the coronavirus has made the international business a risky venture
Considerations when choosing to invest in developing countries
How e-commerce has made international business more accessible and manageable
Market segmentation as a factor in international business ventures

International Business Research Paper Topics For College Students

The impact of off-shore business accounts in combating corruption
How terrorism affects international businesses
The role of modern technologies in enhancing international businesses
What is the implication of the stock market exchange in international business?
How to strategically manage global business ventures in the technological age
How does cultural imperialism affect the effectiveness of the business in the international arena?

International Business Research Topics For High School Students

Discuss the impact of political upheavals in international business
Discuss the ethical dilemmas in conducting businesses globally
Why is Coca-Cola making inroads in the international world of business?
Evaluate the best HR management strategies for global businesses
Legislations and policies among countries that inhibit the performance of global companies
Does the presence of international companies on social media have an impact on their market?

Business Topics For Research Paper in Digital Marketing

The role of digital marketing in flourishing international businesses
Designing business strategies for international digital marketing
The impact of search engine optimization in increasing the online presence of international businesses
What is the effectiveness of email marketing for international businesses
The rise of site, video, and game advertising in international business marketing techniques.
The aggressiveness of paid reviews or articles and hiring influencers in digital advertising

Current Topics in International Business

How are mergers and acquisitions transforming international businesses?
Supply chain management and logistics in international companies – a case study of the risks involved
Training and development strategies in developing economies
Risks associated with global banking systems
How are regional trade blocks instrumental in international businesses?
How the World Bank and IMF are essential in facilitating international business ventures

International Business Research Papers For Master’s Students

How organizational culture is essential in innovation management
Impacts of employee turnover and measures of addressing them
How intercultural differences affect consumption patterns
How emerging small and medium business enterprises can get funding
Analysis of the Coca-Cola marketing strategy
The running of international non-governmental organizations: A case study of Red Cross

International Business Topics For Projects

Marketing strategies that have made KFC a global brand
The role of corporate leadership in international companies
How governments impact international trade
Impact of pandemics on international businesses
Effects of corruption on global business ventures
The success of Amazon as a global internet company

Hot Global Business Topics

Penetration of Chinese investors in Africa
An overview of the horticulture Industry
The rise of mask production companies
Impacts of crypto-currencies on international businesses
Who assesses the quality of products in the international markets?
The effect of BREXIT on global markets

International Business Research Topics List

Impact of war on global businesses
Economic consequences of Trump’s administration
How does artificial intelligence take part in the global market
A case analysis of companies that have succeeded and failed in the global arena
How labeling the country of origin on products affects its sales
Impacts of legislation on tobacco and marijuana globally

If you need help with research paper , our expert writers are here for you. Order your paper online now and enjoy first-class business papers. Contact us with a “ do my research paper for me ” request for quality assistance. Get the best grades with our professional writers!

80+ International Business Research Paper Topics With Samples

Business students who look for academic paper topics have a great variety of subjects to choose from. International business research paper topics are one of the options. We’ve gathered the collection below to inspire you and give you some ideas about your future paper. You can also check out our examples of business research papers – follow the links in our list!

The list is quite impressive – more than 80 examples of research paper topics about business from our college paper writer . Good luck finding your perfect idea!

International business topics for research papers on general concepts

What are the main business cycles and how do they affect world economics?
Why are master programs in international business popular among applicants?
How does social media affect international business activity?
How do modern technologies affect international business?
How does e-commerce affect international business?
What is cultural imperialism? Is it caused by international business?
What structures are available to international business?
How does the foreign exchange market work?
How does terrorism affect global economics?
The importance of strategic management in international business.
How does shadow banking affect global financial stability?
List and analyze three advantages and disadvantages of international business.

International business research paper topics on companies

How does BBC get profits from the Olympic Games?
International eBay business.
Toyota company: value chain model.
Zara company: international business case study .
Apple Inc.: the role of social media marketing .
How does Disney enter the Chinese market?
International business: General Electric.
How did Walmart become internationally successful?
Competitive advantage theory: McDonald’s.
How did IKEA become international?
Give examples of companies that have failed on the international market but succeed on the national market. Why have they failed?
The soap company Savon de Marseille insists that the government should give them the label of originality because cheap Chinese and Turkish knockoffs try to force them out from the market. What should the government do in this case?

International business research paper topics for college students about countries

Imitation jewelry business in India.
Why is it so hard to do business with Chinese?
The government policy toward international companies in Indonesia.
How does political lobbying in the USA affect international business?
Analyze the international business environment of Bahrain.
Expanding international business to Great Britain: pros and cons.
What is the business relationship between the USA and South Africa?
How does international business evolve in Saudi Arabia?
Is India an appropriate environment for international companies?
Indian companies in Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
What impact did the election of Donald Tramp have on international business in the USA?
Why is China essential for global business?
How do social systems in Arab countries affect international business?
International trade in Costa Rica.
China has advanced much further in mobile technologies than the US. What are the factors that influence the development of the mobile industry in China?
The economic impact of immigration in the United States in the last five years: How do immigrants affect the US economy in general?
How does Brexit influence the economics of the EU?
The British government has rejected the deal on a nuclear power station. Predict the economic consequences of this decision.
Try to explain why the prices on houses have increased after Brexit.

Argumentative business topics for research papers

What will be the most important digital marketing trend.
Do cultural differences have an impact on international business relationships?
The importance of cryptocurrency for international companies.
What country is a leader in the international cocoa industry?
What ethical dilemmas are the most frequent when it comes to international business?
Is globalization coming to the end, and how should international companies react?
Should managers in international companies concentrate on the cultural similarities or differences more?
What are the main reasons for internationalizing of business?
What is the best strategy of cross-cultural negotiations?
What are the most common political risks for international companies?
What countries have the biggest influence in the global energy industry?
Should expatriate employees be a part of international HR strategy?
Should international companies have different standards for customer service?
What were the most effective advertising campaigns in 2016?
Which big international companies are likely to go bankrupt if they fail to change their strategy as soon as possible?
Do you think that all big companies should be present in social media?
What ways do you know to predict US recessions? Which of them is the most effective in your opinion?
The US government urges wars in Africa with the aim to distribute guns. Prove or disapprove this opinion.

Analytical business research paper topics for college students

How to bring a product into a new country successfully?
How to start an international business?
Describe and analyze three possible levels of involvement in international business.
How was international business possible without online trading?
What role does climate change play in international business development?
Explain why aviation has always been treated as a special case in international business.
How do different religions affect international business?
Describe and analyze three attitudes that managers might have toward international business.
Describe how regional trading alliances are reshaping the international business environment.
How do governments profit from war? What kinds of companies grow in the conditions of constant war?
What would be the consequences for the poor if all countries live only on the products that they manufacture?
There’s a tendency in logo design to change the shape of the design to flat. Who started doing this first and why?
What other languages besides English could be international languages for business?

Examples of research paper topics about business: definitions

Define the abbreviation MNC.
What are the BRICS countries? What role do they play in international business?
What is an export credit guarantee?
Define “international business” and “international trade” and compare these terms.
Define the term “relationship marketing.” Is it important for international business?

Compare and contrast business topics for research papers

Compare and contrast international business development in Eastern Europe and Western Europe.
Is there any difference between the decision-making in international and national companies?
Compare and contrast economic environments for the international businesses in China and USA.
Does business ethics in international companies differ from local businesses?

It’s hard to pick one option when you have so many of them. Need some help with your choice? Read the tips below!

Choosing business topics for research papers

If you are assigned to write a research paper, your primary task is to choose your topic. You should consider the following things:

– Even if your professor offers several topics, try to choose the one that interests you. – Ensure that your international business research paper topic isn’t too narrow or too general.

– You’ll find a lot of materials if you are looking for information on broad topics, and not enough facts in the latter case. – Once having chosen a subject, look through the library catalog and internet databases for good ideas. – Look up current events and news on international business sites. – Look through several reference books (handbooks, encyclopedias, reports, dictionaries) when choosing international business research paper topics. They will provide you with the necessary background information and general topic overview.

How to research business research paper topics

Your topic is chosen! Now, make sure you plan and conduct your research properly:

Determine the sources and materials within the particular time frame and other limitations.
Pay special attention to the supervisor’s assistance and a working bibliography.
Start data collecting at once after choosing a particular topic.
Ensure the quality of your resources.
Check the age of the source – it is extremely important when you are going to write a research paper on a relevant international business topic.

We hope that our instructions will make the whole writing process easier for you! If you need write my college essay help, you can get academic assistance at EssayShark.com!

International business research paper topics help

Business research papers are usually assigned to college and university students. This type of paper is a part of a student’s semester work and influences the final marks. From the very beginning of the semester, supervisors put an emphasis on the importance of writing well-thought-out research papers.

If you can’t cope with academic writing on international business research paper topics, the best way out is to apply for assistance. EssayShark.com business essay writing service is there for you! You will never regret asking for help from our academic custom writing service. Just fill in the order form, write your specifications, and wait for the delivery. Business research paper writing has never been so easy!

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Research Topics & Ideas: Business

50+ Management Research Topic Ideas To Fast-Track Your Project

Finding and choosing a strong research topic is the critical first step when it comes to crafting a high-quality dissertation, thesis or research project. If you’ve landed on this post, chances are you’re looking for a business/management-related research topic , but aren’t sure where to start. Here, we’ll explore a variety of research ideas and topic thought-starters for management-related research degrees (MBAs/DBAs, etc.). These research topics span management strategy, HR, finance, operations, international business and leadership.

NB – This is just the start…

The topic ideation and evaluation process has multiple steps . In this post, we’ll kickstart the process by sharing some research topic ideas within the management domain. This is the starting point, but to develop a well-defined research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , along with a well-justified plan of action to fill that gap.

If you’re new to the oftentimes perplexing world of research, or if this is your first time undertaking a formal academic research project, be sure to check out our free dissertation mini-course. In it, we cover the process of writing a dissertation or thesis from start to end. Be sure to also sign up for our free webinar that explores how to find a high-quality research topic.

Overview: Business Research Topics

Business /management strategy
Human resources (HR) and industrial psychology
Finance and accounting
Operations management
International business
Actual business dissertations & theses

Strategy-Related Research Topics

An analysis of the impact of digital transformation on business strategy in consulting firms
The role of innovation in transportation practices for creating a competitive advantage within the agricultural sector
Exploring the effect of globalisation on strategic decision-making practices for multinational Fashion brands.
An evaluation of corporate social responsibility in shaping business strategy, a case study of power utilities in Nigeria
Analysing the relationship between corporate culture and business strategy in the new digital era, exploring the role of remote working.
Assessing the impact of sustainability practices on business strategy and performance in the motor vehicle manufacturing industry
An analysis of the effect of social media on strategic partnerships and alliances development in the insurance industry
Exploring the role of data-driven decision-making in business strategy developments following supply-chain disruptions in the agricultural sector
Developing a conceptual framework for assessing the influence of market orientation on business strategy and performance in the video game publishing industry
A review of strategic cost management best practices in the healthcare sector of Indonesia
Identification of key strategic considerations required for the effective implementation of Industry 4.0 to develop a circular economy
Reviewing how Globalisation has affected business model innovation strategies in the education sector
A comparison of merger and acquisition strategies’ effects on novel product development in the Pharmaceutical industry
An analysis of market strategy performance during recessions, a retrospective review of the luxury goods market in the US
Comparing the performance of digital stakeholder engagement strategies and their contribution towards meeting SDGs in the mining sector

Topics & Ideas: Human Resources (HR)

Exploring the impact of digital employee engagement practices on organizational performance in SMEs
The role of diversity and inclusion in the workplace
An evaluation of remote employee training and development programs efficacy in the e-commerce sector
Comparing the effect of flexible work arrangements on employee satisfaction and productivity across generational divides
Assessing the relationship between gender-focused employee empowerment programs and job satisfaction in the UAE
A review of the impact of technology and digitisation on human resource management practices in the construction industry
An analysis of the role of human resource management in talent acquisition and retention in response to globalisation and crisis, a case study of the South African power utility
The influence of leadership style on remote working employee motivation and performance in the education sector.
A comparison of performance appraisal systems for managing employee performance in the luxury retail fashion industry
An examination of the relationship between work-life balance and job satisfaction in blue-collar workplaces, A systematic review
Exploring HR personnel’s experiences managing digital workplace bullying in multinational corporations
Assessing the success of HR team integration following merger and acquisition on employee engagement and performance
Exploring HR green practices and their effects on retention of millennial talent in the fintech industry
Assessing the impact of human resources analytics in successfully navigating digital transformation within the healthcare sector
Exploring the role of HR staff in the development and maintenance of ethical business practices in fintech SMEs
An analysis of employee perceptions of current HRM practices in a fully remote IT workspace

Topics & Ideas: Finance & Accounting

An analysis of the effect of employee financial literacy on decision-making in manufacturing start-ups in Ghana
Assessing the impact of corporate green innovation on financial performance in listed companies in Estonia
Assessing the effect of corporate governance on financial performance in the mining industry in Papua New Guinea
An evaluation of financial risk management practices in the construction industry of Saudi Arabia
Exploring the role of leadership financial literacy in the transition from start-up to scale-up in the retail e-commerce industry.
A review of influential macroeconomic factors on the adoption of cryptocurrencies as legal tender
An examination of the use of financial derivatives in risk management
Exploring the impact of the cryptocurrency disruption on stock trading practices in the EU
An analysis of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance in academic publishing houses
A comparison of financial ratios performance in evaluating E-commerce startups in South Korea.
An evaluation of the role of government policies in facilitating manufacturing companies’ successful transitioning from start-up to scale-ups in Denmark
Assessing the financial value associated with industry 4.0 transitions in the Indian pharmaceutical industry
Exploring the role of effective e-leadership on financial performance in the Nigerian fintech industry
A review of digital disruptions in CRM practices and their associated financial impact on listed companies during the Covid-19 pandemic
Exploring the importance of Sharia-based business practices on SME financial performance in multicultural countries

Free Webinar: How To Find A Dissertation Research Topic

Ideas: Operations Management

An assessment of the impact of blockchain technology on operations management practices in the transport industry of Estonia
An evaluation of supply chain disruption management strategies and their impact on business performance in Lithuania
Exploring the role of lean manufacturing in the automotive industry of Malaysia and its effects on improving operational efficiency
A critical review of optimal operations management strategies in luxury goods manufacturing for ensuring supply chain resilience
Exploring the role of globalization on Supply chain diversification, a pre/post analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic
An analysis of the relationship between quality management and customer satisfaction in subscription-based business models
Assessing the cost of sustainable sourcing practices on operations management and supply chain resilience in the Cocao industry.
An examination of the adoption of behavioural predictive analytics in operations management practices, a case study of the
Italian automotive industry
Exploring the effect of operational complexity on business performance following digital transformation
An evaluation of barriers to the implementation of agile methods in project management within governmental institutions
Assessing how the relationship between operational processes and business strategy change as companies transition from start-ups to scale-ups
Exploring the relationship between operational management and innovative business models, lessons from the fintech industry
A review of best practices for operations management facilitating the transition towards a circular economy in the fast food industry
Exploring the viability of lean manufacturing practices in Vietnam’s plastics industry
Assessing engagement in cybersecurity considerations associated with operations management practices in industry 4.0 manufacturing

Research Topic Kickstarter - Need Help Finding A Research Topic?

Topics & Ideas: International Business

The impact of cultural differences in communication on international business relationships
An evaluation of the role of government import and export policies in shaping international business practices
The effect of global shipping conditions on international business strategies
An analysis of the challenges of managing multinational corporations: branch management
The influence of social media marketing on international business operations
The role of international trade agreements on business activities in developing countries
An examination of the impact of currency fluctuations on international business and cost competitiveness
The relationship between international business and sustainable development: perspectives and benefits
An evaluation of the challenges and opportunities of doing business in emerging markets such as the renewable energy industry
An analysis of the role of internationalisation via strategic alliances in international business
The impact of cross-cultural management on international business performance
The effect of political instability on international business operations: A case study of Russia
An analysis of the role of intellectual property rights in an international technology company’s business strategies
The relationship between corporate social responsibility and international business strategy: a comparative study of different industries
The impact of technology on international business in the fashion industry

Topics & Ideas: Leadership

A comparative study of the impact of different leadership styles on organizational performance
An evaluation of transformational leadership in today’s non-profit organizations
The role of emotional intelligence in effective leadership and productivity
An analysis of the relationship between leadership style and employee motivation
The influence of diversity and inclusion on leadership practices in South Africa
The impact of Artificial Intelligence technology on leadership in the digital age
An examination of the challenges of leadership in a rapidly changing business environment: examples from the finance industry
The relationship between leadership and corporate culture and job satisfaction
An evaluation of the role of transformational leadership in strategic decision-making
The use of leadership development programs in enhancing leadership effectiveness in multinational organisations
The impact of ethical leadership on organizational trust and reputation: an empirical study
An analysis of the relationship between various leadership styles and employee well-being in healthcare organizations
The role of leadership in promoting good work-life balance and job satisfaction in the age of remote work
The influence of leadership on knowledge sharing and innovation in the technology industry
An investigation of the impact of cultural intelligence on cross-cultural leadership effectiveness in global organizations

Business/Management Dissertation & Theses

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a business-related research topic, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses to see how this all comes together.

Below, we’ve included a selection of research projects from various management-related degree programs (e.g., MBAs, DBAs, etc.) to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

Sustaining Microbreweries Beyond 5 Years (Yanez, 2022)
Perceived Stakeholder and Stockholder Views: A Comparison Among Accounting Students, Non-Accounting Business Students And Non-Business Students (Shajan, 2020)
Attitudes Toward Corporate Social Responsibility and the New Ecological Paradigm among Business Students in Southern California (Barullas, 2020)
Entrepreneurial opportunity alertness in small business: a narrative research study exploring established small business founders’ experience with opportunity alertness in an evolving economic landscape in the Southeastern United States (Hughes, 2019)
Work-Integrated Learning in Closing Skills Gap in Public Procurement: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study (Culver, 2021)
Analyzing the Drivers and Barriers to Green Business Practices for Small and Medium Enterprises in Ohio (Purwandani, 2020)
The Role of Executive Business Travel in a Virtual World (Gale, 2022)
Outsourcing Security and International Corporate Responsibility: A Critical Analysis of Private Military Companies (PMCs) and Human Rights Violations (Hawkins, 2022)
Lean-excellence business management for small and medium-sized manufacturing companies in Kurdistan region of Iraq (Mohammad, 2021)
Science Data Sharing: Applying a Disruptive Technology Platform Business Model (Edwards, 2022)
Impact of Hurricanes on Small Construction Business and Their Recovery (Sahu, 2022)

Looking at these titles, you can probably pick up that the research topics here are quite specific and narrowly-focused , compared to the generic ones presented earlier. This is an important thing to keep in mind as you develop your own research topic. That is to say, to create a top-notch research topic, you must be precise and target a specific context with specific variables of interest . In other words, you need to identify a clear, well-justified research gap.

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Effect of Leadership, computerized accounting systems, risk management and monitoring on the quality of financial Reports among listed banks

May you assist on a possible PhD topic on analyzing economic behaviours within environmental, climate and energy domains, from a gender perspective. I seek to further investigate if/to which extent policies in these domains can be deemed economically unfair from a gender perspective, and whether the effectiveness of the policies can be increased while striving for inequalities not being perpetuated.

healthy work environment and employee diversity, technological innovations and their role in management practices, cultural difference affecting advertising, honesty as a company policy, an analysis of the relationships between quality management and customer satisfaction in subscription based business model,business corruption cases. That I was selected from the above topics.

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International Business Research and the World Investment Report : “Big Questions” and Grand Challenges

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The World Investment Report ( WIR ) has sought “Big Questions” rather than Grand Challenges and has been entirely successful in mirroring the focus of international business (IB) research. It has not, however, focused on “Grand Challenges” deeming them to be beyond its remit, or too broad for a single report. There is no shortage of potential topics for future WIR s, building on past success and extant IB research.

Introduction

This piece argues that the World Investment Report ( WIR ) has sought “Big Questions” rather than Grand Challenges and has been entirely successful in mirroring the focus of international business (IB) research. It has not, however, focused on “Grand Challenges,” deeming them to be beyond its remit, or too broad for a single report. The distinction between big questions and Grand Challenges is that big questions are framed in an academic agenda to be answered by careful investigation, whereas Grand Challenges come from the environment, do not necessarily have “answers”, and are not easy to encompass even within a multi-disciplinary explanatory framework. These are societal, not academic challenges. Nevertheless these can be confronted by academic practices: theory, theory testing, and exploratory methods (Buckley , Doh , & Benischke , 2017) . This piece examines the 30 years of WIR s and examines the big questions that it has confronted – largely successfully. It then goes on to look at Grand Challenges that have only been partially confronted by WIR . The rise in Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) in the global economy and the increasingly fractured international economy and society into rival “camps” are new issues that will complicate the content of future WIR s as well as having a profound impact on international business in general.

The World Investment Report at 30

The 30 volumes of WIR are a rich treasure trove of IB applied theory and policy-based empirical work. They have relied on leading IB academics for guidance on topics and implementation. A key influence for the first 20 years was John Dunning of the University of Reading. Dunning was a member of the “Eminent Person’s Committee” who envisaged WIR and steered it as it became an annual publication and the key source of FDI data.

It has to be remembered that WIR , and UNCTAD, operate under political constraints (and restraints). This means that not all projects that academics champion are politically feasible as special topics for WIR . Among these are corruption, tax evasion and probably the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. This is likely to be an increasingly serious issue in the future with the increasing fracture of the global economy under pressure from competing US and Chinese ambitions.

Nevertheless, the WIR has been able to tackle a number of big questions over the past 30 years. These issues have been identified by academic research in the main and so the history of WIR tracks the progress of international business research.

“Big Questions”

WIR has been unafraid of tackling big questions, often before any firm resolution of the underlying academic enquiry, which makes some WIR s at the cutting edge of not only policy, but also international business research itself. The resolute focus of WIR s on development means that the external effects of MNEs are often to the fore in WIR s rather than the sometimes inward-looking research on “strategy”. What follows is a necessarily abbreviated analysis of the big questions that WIR has tackled. The analysis builds on Buckley (2002) and Buckley et al. (2017) .

1. Explaining flows of FDI.

Early international business research was concerned with the nature, amount and directionality of FDI flows and its home country provenance. WIR has reflected this throughout its existence and the first WIR consolidated this research by concentrating on the Triad within which most source countries of FDI then existed –North America, Europe and Asia (then predominantly Japan)

{ WIR : 1991 The Triad in Foreign Direct Investment}

2. Explaining the existence, strategy and organisation of MNEs.

The focus of international business research moved rapidly from FDI flows to the organisation that controlled such flows – the multinational enterprise. WIR recognised the development impact of MNEs in its reports of 1992 and 1993, the employment implications of strategic decisions of MNEs and the importance of M&As that have frequently accounted for 60% of total world flows of FDI.

{ WIR s: 1992 Transnational Corporations as Engines of Growth; 1993 Transnational Corporations and Integrated international Production; 1994 Transnational Corporations, Employment and the Workplace; 2000 Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions}

3. Moving from internationalization to globalization, “new forms” of international business operations.

As MNEs became more salient, international business researchers moved from the process of internationalization to examining the global operations of MNEs. The global competitive strategies of dominant firms, their impact on (and restrictions of) market structure, and their linkages in host countries that have important development effects have all been scrutinized. Sectoral study has been an important area of investigation for WIR including the directly development-orientated sectors such as extractive industries, infrastructure, and of course agriculture. These reports repay revisiting. Agriculture remains the most important sector in developing and least developed countries, extractive industries remain problematic and controversial, but are a key source of income for many poor countries. Infrastructure is again at the forefront of research, policy and discussion because of the impact of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.

WIR has traditionally had a central focus on Foreign Direct Investment, and it is the primary source of FDI data. However, FDI is only one tool in the MNE’s strategic armoury. Moreover, to concentrate on FDI as representing the activities of MNEs is to underestimate their reach and power in the global economy. Consequently, WIR 2011 extended the reach of WIR by including non-equity modes of operation. Thus, licensing, franchising, and other contractual arrangements were included for the first time, giving a much more balanced view of MNE operations and strategy. This paved the way for seeing MNEs as the focal firms in global value chains (GVCs).

{ WIR s: 1995 Transnational Corporations and Competitiveness; 1997 Transnational Corporations, Market Structure and Competition Policy; 1998 Trends and Determinants; 1999 Foreign Direct Investment and the Challenge of Development, 2001 Promoting Linkages; 2002 Transnational Corporations and Export Competitiveness; 2004 The Shift towards Services; 2005 Transnational Corporations and the Internationalization of R&D. The Sectoral studies are: 2007 Transnational Corporations, Extractive Industries and Development; 2008 Transnational Corporations and the Infrastructure Challenge; 2009 Transnational Corporations, Agricultural Production and Development. In 2011, Non-equity Modes of International Production and Development expanded the coverage of MNE strategies}

4. Explaining the emergence of and strategies of MNEs from emerging economies.

International business researchers saw the rise of FDI from emerging economies as a major change in globalization dynamics. They asked the key question of whether these “new” MNEs differed from established “Western” MNE’s and, if so, in want way do they differ. The WIR of 2006 was an excellent consolidation of this work and moved it to the centre stage of development and policy thinking.

{ WIR s: 2006 FDI from Developing and Transition Economies – Implications for Development; 2019 Special Economic Zones}

5. Explaining the growth, causes, and consequences of offshoring and disaggregation of value chains.

The MNE is now envisaged in theoretical and empirical work, as not a free-standing entity but as the controlling centre of a network of inter-related businesses and other value-creating entities in a “global value chain”. This value chain may be virtual, as well as physical, as the impact of the digitization revolution becomes apparent. Much on-going work needs to be synthesised and the reports of 2013 and 2017 respond to these big questions.

{ WIR s: 2013 Global Value Chains: Investment and Trade for Development; 2017 Investment and the Digital Economy)

6. Understanding how MNEs respond to social responsibility and sustainability.

MNEs are primarily business entities, but their actions and motives have non-market as well as market consequences. The upsurge of current research on “Corporate Social Responsibility” and related issues suggests that the big question of the role of business in society will continue to impact on FDI, MNEs and policy outcomes. The role of governance and its relationship with (foreign) ownership are ongoing topics of interest for WIR s.

{ WIR s: 2014 Investing in the SDGs – An action Plan; 2015 Reforming International Investment Governance; 2016 Investor Nationality – Policy Challenges; 2020 International Production Beyond the Pandemic}

7. Appraising policy towards MNEs.

A seventh theme, naturally, is policy towards MNEs. Policy is undergoing serious reappraisal in the face of political developments (the fracture in the global economy) and technological advances that are both pro-globalization (Blockchain) and anti-globalization (the “splinternet”). Issues regarding the implementation of “fair” taxation of global companies, and their development effects, will not become less salient. The rise of government macro-management of industrial structure and its ramifications is also a big question that looms ever larger as time and politics move on.

{ WIR s: 1996 Investment, Trade, and International Policy Arrangements, 1999 Foreign Direct Investment and the Challenge of Development, 2003 FDI policies for Development, 2010 Investing in a Low Carbon Economy, 2012 Towards a New Generation of Investment Policies, 2018 Investment and New Industrial Policies}

WIR has an excellent track-record in covering, and to a lesser degree, anticipating, big questions, but WIR and the whole United Nations system are faced with societal Grand Challenges, increasing VUCA, and the growing fracture in the global economy.

Grand Challenges

Grand Challenges are societal issues, broad based and not necessarily capable of solution. Moreover, they are difficult to deal with in a report that still has its main purpose of presenting the most comprehensive, accurate and up to date data on FDI. However, with the advent of COVID-19 and with the pressing challenge of climate change, WIR may be an ideal forum in which to discuss the relationship between foreign direct investment and these challenges, from a development viewpoint. Taking the impact of FDI on each individual Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) would be a good way to meet Grand Challenges.

In addition to the relationship between SDGs and FDI, a number of Grand Challenges suggest themselves as candidates for exploration in future WIR s. These include:

Climate Change {partially covered in WIR 20 on the Low Carbon Economy}

Poverty and Inequality, including gender and race.

Terrorism and Political Insecurity

Literacy and Financial Literacy

Mass Entrepreneurship

Infectious Diseases e.g. HIV and Pandemics , COVID-19 {partially covered, in a preliminary fashion, in WIR 30}

For all these topics, it is possible to envisage a nexus between FDI, the Grand Challenge, and development.

On a more mundane, but well-researched area, WIR could examine the two-way relationship between SDGs and (global) business models. These issues affect business and are, in turn, affected by business practice.

Increasing VUCA in the World Economy

Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Uncertainty – VUCA elements are undeniably of increasing saliency in the modern global economy. The reaction of MNEs to one or more of these features could be a topic for WIR . The interconnected rise of VUCA elements as an interacting totality constitutes the Grand Challenge. The impact of rising VUCA on development and, in particular, for the Least Developed Countries is a splendid area for future research; research that probably has to lead any WIR on this pressing topic.

The Fracture in Globalization

The world economy is increasingly bifurcated by policy-driven interventions between the USA and China. This covers not only trade, but also FDI, industrial policy, digital operations (creating the “splinternet”) and other societal contacts such as education and culture (including the film and television industries). This division of the world into two competitive camps will profoundly affect the operations of international business, covering everything from restrictions on M&As, reconfiguring of value chains, migration patterns, technology flows and security policies. This could be approached by comparing and contrasting the FDI patterns of China and the USA and how these relate to trade, knowledge flows, non-equity modes and development. This indeed could support several WIR reports. The UN has a vested interest in the rules-based system that has allowed the rise of global integration, particularly of regulation, and a WIR could be devoted to the impact and extent of its erosion on amounts, make-up and directionality of FDI flows.

There is no shortage of potential topics for future WIR s, building on past success and extant international business research. The global economy faces huge challenges – COVID-19, the fracture in globalization, rising VUCA, and threats to the rules based system of trade and investment. WIR will attempt to deal with these issues through its careful compilation of data and its presentation of special subjects. It can only do so much but, as part of the UN system, it is in a good position to confront grand challenges. This has to be a multi-year endeavour. As international business academics, we must support future efforts to the best of our abilities. The move from answering big questions to Grand Challenges is difficult for WIR , but UNCTAD can rise to the challenge.

About the Author

Peter J. Buckley ( [email protected] ) is Professor of International Business, Centre for International Business, University of Leeds, Professor of International Business, University of Queensland and Visiting Professor at the Open University of Hong Kong. He is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB), Fellow of the British Academy of Management (BAM), Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), Fellow of the European International Business Academy (EIBA), Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS), and Fellow of the Japan Academy of International Business Studies. Peter was President of the Academy of International Business (2002-04), Chair of the European International Business Academy (2009-2012), appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) 2012 and elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), 2014.

Submitted : September 01, 2020 EDT

Accepted : November 13, 2020 EDT

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Behind the Talk: Towards a Conceptual and Analytical Framework of Corporate Human Rights Reporting
Come Closer! On Transaction Costs and Spatial Choices in a Circular Economy
Corporate Social Responsibility, Irresponsibility, and Firms’ Financial Performance: Evidence from Emerging versus Developed Countries
De-internationalization or Re-internationalization? The Role of Environmental Sustainability Orientation at Firm and Country level
Diffusion of Technologies: Delivering on the Promises of Battery Electric Vehicles
Discussing Insights from the Carbon Performance Literature for IB: The Institutional Complexity of Climate Change Policy
Disentangling the Effects of Circular Economy Principles on GVCs’ Activities, Configuration, and Governance
Distance, (Multi)regional Strategies, and Limitations to Bridge Distance
Evidence-based International Business Scholarship
Governance for Sustainability: Alain Verbeke’s Contribution to International Business Scholarship and Practice
How Can Large International Financial Firms ‘Go Green’ and ‘Walk the Talk’?
How Institutions Influence Firms’ Climate Change Strategies: Extending the Perspectives of International Business and Global Value Chains with Business Systems
Introduction: Setting the Scene
Taking Wishes for Reality: The Neglected Role of Complementary Resources in the Choice of Foreign Market Entry, the Internationalization of Digital Ventures, and Catching-up by Emerging Market Firms
The European Union’s Cross-border Adjustment Mechanism and its Implications for International Business
The Involvement of Firms in Chinese Foreign Aid Projects: A Data Overview and Research Agenda
The Role of NGOs in the Transition Towards More Sustainable and Innovative Agri-food GVCs
The Role of Sustainability in Backshoring Decisions – A Conceptual Framework
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v.9(1); 2023 Jan

Innovation and international business: A systematic literature review

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Introduction

Innovation and international business are essential to achieve competitive advantages in currently unforeseen business environments. Today's company seeks innovation in its country of origin and abroad in order to compete globally. Thus, incorporating this concept into international companies' strategies is a main issue nowadays.

The aim of this systematic study is to improve the current knowledge on the relationship between innovation and international business, as well as identifying innovation tendencies for corporations to acknowledge the opportunities and challenges of this area's development in the international business context.

Methodology

Despite the abundance of innovation and international business reviews, joint reviews of both of them cannot be found. This study is the first to combine the scholarly research on both topics with the systematic literature review of academic literature of 28 years, following the PRISMA guidelines and flowchart. A search was carried out in Web of Science database; 847 initial documents were obtained and, after reviewing multiple documents according to the inclusion/exclusion criteria, the results for this research work were reduced to 236 articles.

The results of this research provide an overview of the knowledge structure of innovation and international business. As the main contribution, the results highlight four themes of investigation within a comprehensive and multidimensional framework: Innovative activities of multinational corporations, Global value chains, Innovation in emerging economies, and Cross-border knowledge. With an international perspective, insights from how to face innovation development in the international business context are presented.

Conclusions

There is a strong relationship between innovation and international business. These four research trends highlight the strategic importance of innovation in the international business field. Finally, the most interesting paths for future research are identified, targeting opportunities for improvement in both areas. This systematic literature review is expected to make significant contributions to both theory and practice in the field of innovation and international business.

1. Introduction

Innovation, knowledge and technology are relevant concepts in the international business field [ 1 ] and both areas are essential to achieve competitive advantages in current business environments [ 2 ]. Cantwell [ 3 ] adds that innovation and internationalization processes have been increasingly interlinked as key drivers of development since the first industrial revolution, all the way to today's information age.

Innovation is the cornerstone of growth and sustains organizations to counter marketplace fluctuations and prepares them for long-term growth [ 4 ]. Business model innovation, although it is very difficult to achieve [ 5 ], can itself be a pathway to competitive advantage if the model is sufficiently differentiated and hard to replicate for incumbents and new entrants alike [ 6 ]. New models of innovation have encouraged many innovative firms to change the way they search for new ideas, adopting open search strategies that involve the use of a wide range of external actors and sources to help them achieve innovation [ 7 ].

The field of international business studies came to prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s with the growth of multinational corporations [ 8 ]. In this framework, two theoretical models are extremely relevant; on the one hand, gradual internationalization or Uppsala model, according to which internationalization is seen as an incremental process that begins in foreign markets, being in closer proximity to the domestic market in terms of physical distance [ 9 , 10 ] and, on the other hand, born global firms, that is to say, companies that internationalise at or near their founding, on an average period of three years of founding, generating at least twenty five percent of their total sales from foreign countries [ 11 ]. There is an extensive literature about this issue [ [12] , [13] , [14] ].

The systematic literature review on the topic of innovation has been a frequent research method over the last ten years. Different topics have been raised and discussed: organizational innovation [ 15 ], innovation capability in SMEs [ 16 ], or digital innovation in knowledge management systems [ 17 ] among others. In the same way, systematic literature review about international business is copious, holding various topics of investigation: knowledge flows in multinational corporations [ 18 ], business systems theory [ 19 ], social network [ 20 ], or culture [ 21 , 22 ].

Despite the abundance of innovation and international business reviews, joint reviews of both of them cannot be found, such review being needed since the emerging phenomena that are changing international business' frontiers require a change, as well, in the threshold of international business’ innovation [ 23 ]. From an economic point of view, Melitz [ 24 ] shows how high exposure to trade will induce only the most productive companies to enter the international markets; in addition, internationalization has a more positive effect on innovation in high productivity companies [ 25 ]. Likewise, the number of international relations increases the capacity to innovate [ 26 ] and exposure to foreign competition is associated with greater firm innovation [ 27 ]. Companies thus grow either through innovation or through internationalization (also through a mixed strategy), with a combination of internationalization and innovation being the most advisable option when domestic markets are limited [ 28 ].

International innovativeness is a significant dimension of international business competence [ 29 ], as a nuanced understanding of innovation and international business necessitates a multidisciplinary approach to reveal their multifaceted aspects [ 30 ]. Having this in mind, the aim of this study is to improve the current knowledge on the relationship between innovation and international business, that is to say, to identify trends for companies to know better the opportunities and challenges of innovation development in the international business context. Thus, the main innovative contribution of this systematic approach is the proposal of four themes of investigation within a comprehensive and multidimensional framework: Innovative activities of multinational corporations, Global value chains, Innovation in emerging economies, and Cross-border knowledge. This systematic review is motivated by the knowledge gap found in this issue since future research could fill that knowledge gap in the international business field through the development of new theoretical frameworks that draw on various disciplines [ 31 ]. On this wise, international business literature tends to develop a plurality of approaches that makes difficult to find single recurring or dominant forms [ 32 ].

Considering the ideas presented above and creating an intersection between both the literature of innovation and that of international business, this research provides several contributions to both areas. This is done with a methodologically systematic review of academic literature on both topics. A systematic review has been increasingly adopted in the management literature and is guided by a review question that defines the topics used for the database [ 33 ]. Following a previous theoretical study, two research questions were defined.

What themes about innovation and international business have been studied jointly to date?

Which themes about both areas require further research?

The rest of the paper is structured as follows: the section “Research method” presents the methodology and both the data search and selection used for the study; meanwhile, the section “Research results” presents the main results derived from that research, being categorized in those four themes of investigation posed earlier; the section “Discussion” also presents “Limitations” and “Recommendations for future research”, as further studies are needed to provide greater insight about this new approach; finally, the section “Conclusions” has also been included.

2. Research method

This paper presents the results of a systematic review of innovation in international business. Knowledge production within the field of business research is accelerating while at the same time remaining fragmented and interdisciplinary. This makes difficult to assess the global evidence in a specific area of business research, being the reason why literature review as a research method is more important than ever [ 34 ]. An advantage of the systematic review methodology is the generalizability of the results by allowing the accumulated knowledge in the field to be systematically synthesized and analysed [ 35 ]. A systematic review should have a list of specific steps to assure that important studies regarding the topic are acquired without any bias. Overall, following Tranfield et al. [ 36 ], (1) Identification for the need for a review, (2) Selecting a sample of potentially relevant works and the pertinent literature, (3) Data synthesis, (4) Reporting the results and recommendations. The cited steps are all followed in this study. Specifically, the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis, commonly called PRISMA [ 37 ], were followed in this study.

In this analysis, a systematic search was carried out in Web of Science of Clarivate Analytics, including documents published from January 01, 1993 to December 31, 2020. Birkle et al. [ 38 ] claim that Web of Science is the world's oldest, most used and reliable database of research publications (around 34000 journals today). The query used in this systematic literature review is as it follows: TS = (“Innovation” AND “International Business”). Consequently, TS = Topic; and the search terms “innovation” and “international business” were combined with the Boolean Operator “AND”. Therefore, literature search was based on two simultaneous topics, “innovation” and “international business” (as stated in the title of the publication, the abstract, the author keywords and/or the keywords plus). Each document has been published between 1993 and 2020, since the first contribution was published in 1993. A total of 847 related documents were found. Thus, it can be affirmed that the importance and size of the literature on innovation and international business is more relevant.

Different criteria for inclusion and exclusion are considered in this study. The process is described through the PRISMA flowchart ( Fig. 1 ). Excluding meetings, books, review articles, editorial materials, and others, the reviewing process generated 630 articles. Only articles published in Business Economics have been considered due to its prominent research area regarding the topics of this paper; bearing this in mind, the number of the articles was reduced to 291. Each article is written in English language following Tenzer et al. [ 39 ], stating that 75% of articles in the social sciences are written in this language; therefore, the number of articles was delimited to 264. At last, each article was read in its entirety and various articles were excluded based on full-text or abstract due to their irrelevant nature to the research; thereby, the final sample has been finally reduced to 236 articles. Other criteria, as open access or funding agencies, have not been considered in this research work.

PRISMA flowchart of the systematic literature review.

One by one, data of each article were extracted, transferred, and sorted into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for further analysis. Therefore, a wide Excel database was created with specific information for each article: journal, title, authors' keywords, keywords plus, year of publication, and author information (number, name, affiliation, and country). Specifically, the author keywords and the keywords plus have been studied. In total, 3064 keywords (authors’ keywords and keywords plus) were counted, analysed and categorized; this analysis has allowed to obtain four themes of investigation. Subsequently, in Web of Science, these research trends have been confirmed with the latest studies published from January 01, 2021 to November 03, 2022.

3. Research results

3.1. general results.

Fig. 2 shows the number of articles on innovation and international business published each year over time. 236 articles were published during the study period 1993–2020, with no consistent trend of the number of articles published, that is to say, with some ups and downs. 80% of the total articles reviewed (189) were published during the last ten years (2011–2020). The largest number of articles was published during 2020 (43 articles), followed by 2018 (31 articles), 2015 and 2019 (both with 21 articles), and finally 2017 (15 articles). There was a lack of publications during the following years: 1994, 1995, 1998, and 2001. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods are included in these articles (for instance, case study, literature review, bibliometric study, or regression analysis, among others).

Number of articles published each year.

The first article was published in the Strategic Management Journal by Hagedoorn [ 40 ]; this article presents interfirm strategic alliances in the international business area and their relationship with innovative efforts. The second article was published in the Journal of International Business Studies by Buckley and Casson [ 41 ], regarding international joint ventures in terms of the accelerating pace of technological innovation.

Number of authors per article is presented in Table 1 . The number of authors ranged from 1 to 9, with a predominance of two (35.59%) and three (30.93%) authors per article, that is to say, over 65% of the articles published. Besides, the mean of authors per article is considered to be 2.44.

Number of authors per article.

Number of authors	Number of articles	Weight (%)
1	49	20.76%
2	84	35.59%
3	73	30.93%
4	20	8.47%
5	6	2.54%
6	2	0.85%
7	0	0.00%
8	1	0.42%
9	1	0.42%
	236	100.00%

Following the previously mentioned line of thought, Table 2 shows the most relevant journals for research topic. The major journals included in this study are Journal of International Business Studies (48 articles; 20.34%), International Business Review (32 articles; 13.56%), International Marketing Review (14 articles; 5.93%), Management International Review (12 articles; 5.08%), Journal of International Management (8 articles; 3.39%), and Multinational Business Review (8 articles; 3.39%). These are believed to be the top six academic journals and represent more than a half (52%) of the total scientific production.

Main authors.

Number of Articles Published	Authors
5	Knight, Gary A.
4	Buckley, Peter J.; Cantwell, John
3	Coviello, Nicole; Kim, Daekwan; Kolk, Ans; Lewin, Arie Y.; Luo, Yadong; Massini, Silvia; Mudambi, Ram; Peeters, Carine; Tippmann, Esther
2	Aggarwal, Vijita; Barnard, Helena; Birkinshaw, Julian M.; Casson, Mark C.; Cavusgil, S. Tamer; Ciabuschi, Francesco; Forsgren, Mats; Geppert, Mike; Giblin, Majella; Gotz, Marta; Jean, Ruey-Jer Bryan; Jin, Zhongqi; Kapoor, Madhavi; Kedia, Ben L.; Khan, Zaheer; Lee, Jeoung Yul; Lorenz, Melanie P.; Lundan, Sarianna M.; Monaghan, Sinead.; Musteen, Martina; Ning, Lutao; Parente, Ronaldo Couto; Park, Taekyung; Peng, Mike W.; Perez-Nordtvedt, Liliana; Ramsey, Jase R.; Rhee, Jaehoon; Rose, Elizabeth L.; Rosinska-Bukowska, Magdalena; Ryan, Paul; Seyoum, Belay; Sutherland, Dylan; Teece, David J.; Tsao, Shou-Min; Wang, Yuandi; Weerawardena, Jay; Welch, Catherine; Zahra, Shaker A.; Zander, Ivo

Principal journals.

Journal	Number of articles	Weight (%)
Journal of International Business Studies	48	20.34%
International Business Review	32	13.56%
International Marketing Review	14	5.93%
Management International Review	12	5.08%
Journal of International Management	8	3.39%
Multinational Business Review	8	3.39%
Thunderbird International Business Review	7	2.97%
Journal of World Business	6	2.54%
Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review	5	2.12%
Organization Studies	4	1.69%
Industry and Innovation	4	1.69%
Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal	3	1.27%
Journal of Business Research	3	1.27%
Management and Organization Review	3	1.27%
Administrative Sciences	2	0.85%
International Journal of Management and Economics	2	0.85%
Asia Pacific Business Review	2	0.85%
Journal of East-West Business	2	0.85%
Review of International Business and Strategy	2	0.85%
International Journal of Human Resource Management	2	0.85%
Research Policy	2	0.85%
Journal of International Marketing	2	0.85%
Journal of Management Studies	2	0.85%
Strategic Management Journal	2	0.85%
Journal of Business Venturing	2	0.85%
Others Journals (with one article each)	57	23.94%
	236	100.00%

Eight journals have published at least three articles (Thunderbird International Business Review, Journal of World Business, Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, Organization Studies, Industry and Innovation, Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal, Journal of Business Research, and Management and Organization Review). Eleven journals have published two articles, and finally fifty-seven journals have published only one article. Table 2 also indicates that this study is related to other topics (for instance, strategy, human resources, or entrepreneurship, among others). 1

Fig. 3 represents the most productive universities. It is important to mention that in this study the first university of each author has been selected, rejecting other additional institutions according to the author's institutional information. Thus, the first institution is the University of Reading with a total of eight articles published, followed by the University of Manchester, University of Leeds, and Uppsala University (each one with six articles); after them, the Duke University, the Rutgers University, and the Temple University (each one with five articles). Twenty-nine universities are included in 113 articles.

Most productive universities.

Finally, Fig. 4 shows the distribution of the research topic according to the countries of origin of the authors. Overall, the United States of America (frequency in articles = 80; 33.90%), England (52; 22.03%), China (24; 10.17%), Australia (21; 8.90%), Canada (13; 5.51%), and Italy (12; 5.08%) are the most prominent countries. Twenty-three countries were included in the sample. A country is considered part of this figure if it appears in at least three articles.

Most prominent countries.

3.2. Thematic analysis

The current state of the literature is characterized by its complexity and fragmentation. As previously reported, 3064 keywords (authors’ keywords and keywords plus) were counted, analysed and categorized. Some of the most prominent keywords, with minimum occurrences of ten, are showed in Table 4 ; the semantic difference between singular and plural forms is not considered. Obviously, “innovation” and “international business” are the most relevant concepts among the ones displayed. These two keywords together, along with the other five keywords, influence four categories. Subsequently, “multinational corporation” and “knowledge” are the most common keywords in this research work.

Themes of investigation identified.

Categories	Authors' keywords and Keywords plus	Frequency in articles
All	Innovation	157
	International Business	90
	Strategy	58
	Internationalization	41
	Dynamic capabilities	26
	Competitive advantage	16
	Location	10
Innovative activities of multinational corporations	Multinational corporation/company/enterprise/firm	76
	Foreign direct investment	40
	Research and development	32
	SMEs	25
	Firm performance	17
	Subsidiaries	14
	Born global	12
	National culture	11
Global value chains	Technology	21
	Globalization	17
	Global value chain	17
	Clusters	12
Innovation in emerging economies	Emerging markets/economies/countries	28
	Growth	12
	Competition	11
Cross-border knowledge	Knowledge	63
	Network	44
	Absorptive capacity	32
	Knowledge transfer	14

Thus, this section synthesizes the results of this study. Four themes of investigation about the relationship between innovation and international business are suggested: Innovative activities of multinational corporations, Global value chains, Innovation in emerging economies, and Cross-border knowledge. This thematic analysis allows to answer the RQ1 posed earlier, that is to say: “What themes about innovation and international business have been studied jointly to date?” Consequently, it provides the occasion to have a more complete understanding of the research topic within a comprehensive and multidimensional framework.

3.2.1. Innovative activities of multinational corporations

A classic topic in international business research is the multinational corporation. The widest theme of investigation studies the relationship between innovation and the multinational corporation because, as Venaik et al. [ 42 ] assert, the international business literature has placed ever-greater emphasis on the role that learning and innovation play in determining multinational corporation performance.

It is common to conceive multinational corporations as a set of geographically disseminated subsidiaries that are combinations of heterogeneous technology competencies and product market responsibilities [ 43 ] or, in previous years, as firms that control and manage production establishments located in at least two countries [ 44 ]. Competitive success hinges on a multinational corporation's ability to use effectively available knowledge, and to combine it with knowledge from other locations [ 45 ]. Therefore, by interacting with locations multinational corporations have the possibility to organize their activities for balancing the exploitation of their current knowledge base and that of the new knowledge bases [ 46 ].

Knowledge that is complex to measure [ 47 ] has been recognized as critical for subsidiaries' power [ 48 ] and its transfer is driven by subunits’ motivation: subunits whose activities are mostly complementary have a natural motivation to collaborate and to ensure that the transferred knowledge is adopted, while subunits with surrogate activity relationships are less motivated [ 49 ]; consequently Miller et al. [ 50 ] assert that the use of distant knowledge contributes to innovation.

The location choice for R&D subsidiaries has been a topic of interest for researchers [ 51 ] since national subsidiaries carry out different tasks in the distinct processes of creation and innovation in multinational corporations [ 52 , 53 ]. Moreover, according to Frost et al. [ 54 ], the formation of centres of excellence in foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations is shaped by the conditions of the subsidiary's local environment, the fundamental role played by parent firm investment as well as the role of internal and external organizations in the development of subsidiary capabilities. As Castellani et al. [ 55 ] argue, multinational corporations have organizational and technical competencies that enable them to transfer knowledge within their internal networks at a relatively low cost, so that geographic distance has a relatively low impact on international R&D investments. Nevertheless, the within-country cultural distance between subsidiaries influences headquarters to transfer projects between those same subsidiaries [ 56 ].

Therefore, the degree to which the business model links to local idiosyncrasies, local knowledge, or local innovation, impacts on the business model-related specific advantages [ 57 ]. In this context, Cantwell [ 58 ] claims that changes in the environment for international business activities have facilitated more open networked formations. Such cooperation will often take place within the field of the multinational corporation orchestrated innovation network which may include open innovation activity [ 59 ]. Prashantham and Birkinshaw [ 60 ] add that multinational corporations can cooperate with small and medium sized-enterprises as a specific type of host country business stakeholder, although the extent to that cooperation being relatively weak or not is a result of the compatibility between the intents of these disparate sets of firms.

3.2.2. Global value chains

In recent years, firms have been increasingly implementing strategies to take advantage of the comparative advantages of locations. This results in a wider geographic dispersion of firms' activities, with direct implications for creative industries’ global value [ 61 ]. Buckley [ 62 ] proposes the concept of global factory as a structure through which multinational corporations integrate their global strategies through a combination of innovation, distribution and production of goods and services. The increasing international fragmentation of economic activity gives rise to the global value chain research stream, a conceptual approach that deals with managing disaggregated and geographically dispersed value chains of multinational corporations (see, for instance, Refs. [ [63] , [64] , [65] , [66] ]).

The global value chain concept recognizes that such value-creating chains were not restricted solely to commodities but could also be extended across manufacturing and indeed to services [ 67 ]. Large multinational corporations operate in global innovation systems that are highly complex and so interdependent that the sources of new knowledge creation are hard to pinpoint [ 68 ].

Traditionally, the cluster approach emphasizes horizontal links between firms and local organizations [ 69 ] and from a network perspective, the cluster is a mechanism for the share of knowledge and learning [ 70 ] and also to innovate [ 71 ]. Nevertheless, the global value chain is strongly related with the analysis of clusters in the globalization era [ [72] , [73] , [74] , [75] ] because the need to integrate the global industry and local cluster levels is a basic one [ 64 ]. As Carloni [ 76 ] develops, clusters are supporters and accelerators of internationalization processes. Moreover, the existence of strong local innovation systems tends to be a prerequisite to guarantee sustained learning through global value chain participation [ 77 ].

Overall, participation in the global value chain is positively related to the innovation result of a country, which suggests that the international fragmentation of production may be a channel that allows international technology transfer from developed to developing countries [ 78 ]. Integration in the global value chain is perceived as a fundamental way for companies in developing countries to access knowledge to innovate [ 79 ] and to access larger markets and new technologies too [ 80 ].

3.2.3. Innovation in emerging economies

Emerging economies are low-income, rapid-growth countries using economic liberalization as their primary engine of growth [ 81 ]. Since the end of the 20th century, emerging economies, or what is the same, emerging markets, constitute the major growth opportunity in the world economic order and their potential has created a shift in multinational corporations [ 82 ] seeking to do business in emerging economies with manifold stakeholders benefited [ 83 ], although characteristics of internationalization of emerging market multinational enterprises investment simultaneously have positive and negative development consequences in their home countries [ 84 ]. In any case, multinational corporation subsidiaries and local institutions can help emerging market stakeholders, as suppliers [ 85 ].

Innovation is an important driver of economic growth in emerging economies [ 86 ]. In this context, for instance, innovation has helped develop solutions for consumers at the bottom of the pyramid [ 87 ] and middle-class consumers [ 88 ]. Emerging economies have certain characteristics, such as immature capital markets, lack of resources for innovation, and poor legal framework to protect property rights [ 89 ], that make the innovation process different from developed countries, despite having recently begun to innovate at a rapid rate, regarding the challenges they face [ 90 ]. Moreover, developing country difficulties can foster innovation capabilities and international competition [ 91 ] since in emerging markets a company gains advantage by learning to improvise with scarce resources and, in the process, to become more innovative than its competition [ 92 ]. Summing up, as Anand et al. [ 93 ] claim, innovation to and from emerging economies is a systemic outcome of an entire innovation milieu and both firms and countries are heterogeneous, following each one an idiosyncratic path in its evolution.

3.2.4. Cross-border knowledge

International business and cross-border flows of trade and investment significantly impact on the economic growth, employment and innovation potential of countries [ 64 ]. In addition, the rapid reshaping of the global economic order requires fundamental changes in international business; as a result, innovation networks will require novel reconfigurations [ 94 , 95 ]. Thus, Cantwell [ 3 ] remembers that there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of absorptive capacity on the part of firms [ 96 ]. In this same line, Contreras et al. [ 97 ] show that companies should have an organizational climate that allows them to acquire and transform knowledge in order to increase their innovativeness and be more competitive in a globalized world. Having this in mind, firms and locations co-evolve with one another, and it is possible to appreciate the rise of knowledge connectivity in innovation systems, that is a new underlying reality of the international business field [ 98 ]. The dynamics of place, space and organization continually generate new domains within which knowledge is leveraged in unique ways [ 99 ]. Knowledge circulates through two types of networks; on the one hand, organization-based linkages, or in other words, pipelines [ 100 ] and, on the other, personal relationships [ 73 ]. Accordingly, digital platforms and ecosystems are a major venue for innovation and have considerable implications for international business [ 101 , 102 ].

Multinational enterprises and subnational governments have increased their level of cooperative activity and create the basis for sustainable economic growth [ 103 ]. Discontinuities between nation-states and spatial heterogeneity within national boundaries are a relevant part of international business with different reasons, such as the historical role of national borders, the magnitude of national governments in international trade, the importance of national institutions in the formulation of business strategy and the decision making and the availability of data [ 104 ]. Hence, it is necessary to refer to the concept of global cities, or in other words, the centres of political power, corporate decision-making, knowledge generation and the exchange and movements of human capital and ideas [ 105 ]. Goerzen et al. [ 106 ] argue that distinctive characteristics of global cities (global interconnectedness, cosmopolitanism, and abundance of advanced production services) help multinational corporations to overcome the costs of doing business abroad. Nevertheless, global cities are not always necessarily the key locations for future multinational investments since knowledge and technology as well as the connection with the capabilities and company goals are crucial [ 107 ]. In any case, as Van Burg et al. [ 108 ] remember, organizational actors’ decisions about interorganizational knowledge transfer might change over time because unforeseen events can prompt actors to quite radically reframe future developments as opportunities or threats.

4. Discussion

This paper performs a systematic literature review of the relationship between innovation and international business. Particularly, using a qualitative/interpretative methodology, evolutionary trends have been recognized and are described in detail. 236 articles were published during the depicted study period 1993–2020. The largest number of articles was published during 2020, highlighting the topicality of the subject. Moreover, to enrich this section, the most recent works are included. The results of this research provide an overview of the knowledge structure of innovation and international business. The results highlight four themes of investigation within a comprehensive and multidimensional framework: Innovative activities of multinational corporations, Global value chains, Innovation in emerging economies, and Cross-border knowledge.

About the first theme, this systematic literature review shows that the multinational corporation is the most important kind of firm for innovation development in the international scenery. Thus, the location choice for its subsidiaries and its local environment is basic for the innovations' development [ 51 , 52 ] and also for the geographies of innovation [ 109 ]. This agrees with a very current line of research, which shows that the growing tendency of local technological innovation of multinational corporations, together with the increasing relevance of subsidiaries, are promoting subsidiaries' engagement in conducting innovation activities [ 110 ]. In the same way, managers’ characteristics, such as prior multinational corporations work experience and industry experience, affect subsidiary innovation [ 111 ].

As previously reported, in the field of international business two models are basic; however, although the Uppsala model keeps capturing the interest of scholars and is still one of the most cited frameworks in this area [ 112 ], it is confirmed that the born global firms’ phenomenon is very present in current literature. As Hennart et al. [ 113 ] remember, born global firms make large foreign sales at birth or shortly afterwards since they own valuable resources (for instance, advanced technologies and a high international orientation), and specific internationalization strategies (such as networks). Given the nature of this study, it should be specified that innovation plays a relevant role in the creation of born global firms [ 114 , 115 ]; moreover, born global firms contend with environmental dynamism in global markets, compelling these companies to enhance their innovation capabilities [ 116 ].

The second theme reveals a new conceptual approach, the global value chains as referred in the relationship between multinational corporations and global innovation systems [ 64 ] in view of the fact that nowadays international lead firms integrate their geographically dispersed partners, specialized suppliers, and customers in these global value chains or global production networks [ 117 ]. This new conceptual approach is confirmed due to the necessity of the adoption of a more holistic view of global value chains since this action will provide a clearer picture of how the organization and outcomes of innovative activities have evolved in this specific context [ 118 ].

About the third theme, this study supports the forecasts that indicate that emerging economies will have more economic power in the upcoming years. Therefore, this stated theme emphasizes, in the context of innovation, the opportunities for multinational corporations, local institutions, and stakeholders [ 85 ]. In any case, legal systems in emerging countries must be strengthened by harder competition laws that encourage the kind of competition that is based on innovation [ 119 ]; moreover, emerging market multinational enterprises have consolidated their global presence recently, challenging international business’ theories [ 120 ]; consequently, strengths and weaknesses are more pronounced when firms face competitors from emerging markets [ 121 ].

Finally, the fourth theme is Cross-border knowledge, which, in the internationalization context, impacts on the potential innovation of the countries [ 64 ], requiring relevant changes in their innovation networks [ 95 ]. In this sense, interaction and communication among their different intra-organizational networks facilitate multinational corporation knowledge transfer [ 122 ], whereas born global firms exploit different types of knowledge and networks to develop international opportunities [ 123 ]. Consequently, Freixanet and Churakova [ 124 ] point out to a reduction in the transaction costs as companies gain internationalization knowledge. Hence, internationalized companies devote substantial efforts to deploying and maintaining digital platforms, which plays an increasingly important role in today's digitally connected world [ 125 ].

4.1. Limitations

This study is supported by official data from 236 articles located in the Web of Science database and it has followed a rigorous research methodology. However, the scope of this kind of study always tends to involve some limitations. Firstly, other databases (Scopus or Google Scholar, for instance) have been excluded from the search. Secondly, while keywords (as innovation and international business) have been selected to cover the chosen areas as completely as possible, it could still be possible that important contributions were missed. Furthermore, certain sources of information have been not targeted (meetings, review articles, books, and editorial materials, among others). It must also be taken into consideration that the only considered area of research has been the Business Economics area (other ones, such as Computer Science or Engineering were not considered relevant enough due to the topic of the current study). In order to finish, only English language publications have been included in this analysis (thus, other languages like Spanish, Korean, or Russian were eliminated). Overall, as Greenhalgh et al. [ 126 ] defend, the literature is complex and the approach is somewhat unconventional, leading to other researchers to inevitably identify a different set of primary sources; being this an inherent characteristic of any systematic review.

4.2. Recommendations for future research

This study has strong implications for researchers. Bearing in mind the results of this investigation, it is recommended to expand the scope of this specific study to related innovation and international business topics targeting opportunities for improvement in both areas. There are multiple themes that require further research. Thus, future studies should deepen into the relationship between those specific topics, although this subject could not be an easy one. As previously stated, to enrich this section, the most recent works have been included. The implications of this study allow to answer the RQ2 question posed earlier, that is to say: “Which themes about both areas require further research?”

For instance, the global value chain requires to be fully studied in order to address the participation of multinational corporations in an understandable way holding a comparative environment between countries [ 127 ] since, as Buciuni and Pisano [ 128 ] confirm, there are a plurality of global value chain structures and a variety of innovation models within the global value chain. Similarly, the international business literature has given little attention to the comparison between the performance of advanced economy multinational corporations and the emerging market multinational corporations acting in international markets [ 129 ]. In the same way, in recent years open innovation has become a basic paradigm regarding the specific literature about innovation. However, throughout this research only one article [ 130 ] discusses the relationship between this topic and multinational corporations. In addition, a lack of specificity has been observed in the current literature regarding the role of social innovation in multinational corporation since only one recent article of this study [ 131 ] suggests to ask why and how this companies engage in social innovations. Likewise, although corporate social responsibility is a relevant factor in multinational corporation's competitiveness, only one depicted article [ 132 ] studies the development of corporate social responsibility in international business.

Furthermore, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on international business has barely been discussed; leading to only one article in this study addressing this question [ 133 ]. The Covid-19 pandemic is an external shock that has disrupted the foundations of our everyday life [ 134 ], not only by changing the structure of the world economy, but also by leading to lasting impacts on the international business strategies of multinational corporations [ 135 ]. This pandemic encourages multinational firms to diversify their supply chains in order to retain innovation opportunities [ 136 ] due to the uncertainty of some innovations during that time [ 137 ]. Hence, it is necessary to shed light on the long-term impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on international business, although the true effects on multinational corporations and global value chains can only be judged over time [ 138 ]. In any case, analysing the impact of this virus in the new context of the internationalized companies becomes a necessity.

Future studies could offer more evidence about different topics in the internationalization area (for instance, innovation network adaptation, economic performance, social media, stakeholders, and corruption). Also, the importance of human resource management in the international business context should be reviewed in the near future [ 139 ]. In the same way, the majority of the studies have examined outward firm internationalization; however the phenomenon of inbound internationalization is limited and, as Bianchi and Stoian [ 140 ] add, innovation drives that inbound internationalization.

On this basis, international business scholars may contribute to addressing these knowledge gaps through research and lecturing. Therefore, this study identifies a set of analysis challenges that can be used as a research agenda for the international business research community. To conclude the present section, final remarks for practitioners are advised since the results of this work could also be useful to CEOs and managers of multinational corporations, and overall, international entrepreneurs; particularly those working in the innovation field (management, processes, or networks, among others). From a managerial viewpoint, these practitioners have encountered difficulties to align their different strategies many times. Thus, these results provide guidance to practitioners that adjust their innovation strategies along with their international business strategies in a complex competitive environment. Likewise, this paper allows a better comprehension of the dynamic reality and identifies challenges that can be used and employed by decision-makers when dealing with the unforeseen internationalization process.

5. Conclusions

Nowadays, companies seek innovation in their countries of origin and abroad in order to compete globally. Therefore, innovation is a key factor for entering into international markets. This systematic literature review shows that there is indeed a strong relationship between innovation and international business; four themes of investigation within a comprehensive and multidimensional framework are found: Innovative activities of multinational corporations, Global value chains, Innovation in emerging economies, and Cross-border knowledge. These four research trends highlight the strategic importance of innovation in international business. Nevertheless, even when the number of articles addressing such topics is growing, this research work underlines that there is still a great opportunity for studying the relationship between those concepts. Thus, incorporating innovation into internationalized companies’ strategies is a main issue in current times, even more considering the changing and challenging world that we live in.

Author contribution statement

All authors listed have significantly contributed to the development and the writing of this article.

Funding statement

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, private, or not-for-profit sectors. The Open access publishing of the article was funded by University of Malaga.

Data availability statement

Declaration of interest’s statement.

The authors declare no competing interests.

1 The 236 articles were written by 575 authors. Table 3 shows the most relevant authors to the research topic. Authors such as Knight, Gary A.; Buckley, Peter J.; Cantwell, John; Coviello, Nicole; Kim, Daekwan; Kolk, Ans; Lewin, Arie Y.; Luo, Yadong; Massini, Silvia; Mudambi, Ram; Peeters, Carine; and Tippmann, Esther, have each one three or more publications during the 1993–2020 period. Furthermore, thirty-nine authors contributed to at least two articles each one.

Home » Blog » Dissertation » Topics » Business » International Business » International Business Dissertation Topics (28 Examples) For Research

International Business Dissertation Topics (28 Examples) For Research

Mark May 31, 2020 Jun 5, 2020 Business , International Business No Comments

With time, the business world has evolved, and globalisation has contributed to bringing revolutionary changes in the field of business. With the increasing internationalisation, the scope and area for research in the field of international business have increased. We have listed down some very interesting and unique international business dissertation topics to help you in […]

We have listed down some very interesting and unique international business dissertation topics to help you in choosing a workable topic. The following list of research topics on international business are developed to help students in finding the best topic for their research project.

You can also check our other business related topics posts to have further options.

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List of International business dissertation topics

An analysis of global migrants studying the implications for international business and management.

An overview of the recent trends and future challenges in international business, cities, and competitiveness.

Exploring the international business in the information and digital age.

A systematic review of the issues of international entrepreneurship.

Exploring the competitive advantage strategies based on network analysis.

Studying the internationalisation of African firms based on opportunities, challenges and risks.

An investigation of the changing retail trends: emerging opportunities and challenges in Asian countries.

A review of protectionism, state discrimination, and international studies onset of the global financial crisis.

Examining the evolution of entrepreneurial finance in the last 10 years.

A study of the emergence of impacts of mobile commerce – an exploratory study.

Evaluation of the emergence and evolution of blue ocean strategy through the lens of management fashion theory.

Studying the impact of organisational performance on the emergence of Asian American leaders.

The importance of designing a closed-loop supply chain for improving the sustainability of global business practices.

A literature review of strategies for winning and competing in the global market.

Exploring the concepts of populism and the economics of globalisation.

An analysis of how effective leadership can contribute to facilitating change in the international business context.

Studying the influence of cross-cultural differences on international marketing.

Analysing the implications of domestic reforms and international relations on international businesses.

A review of the effects of globalisation on Asian international retailing taking the case of IKEA.

An analysis of technology trends and their impact on the internationalisation of businesses.

A study of emerging trends in global business and its implications for economies.

Identifying the five major trends that are dramatically changing work and the workplace in this era.

The emergence of corporate social responsibilities and its importance for international businesses.

An analysis of the trade challenges at the world trade organisations .

Analysing the strategic challenges of outsourcing innovation in the global market.

Studying the evolving global strategic trends.

Exploring the policy challenges from closer international trade and financial integration.

Why do businesses internationalise? – a review of factor influencing the decisions to internationalise.

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Emerging themes in international business research

Perspective
Published: 19 June 2008
Volume 39 , pages 1220–1235, ( 2008 )

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David A Griffith 1 ,
Salih Tamer Cavusgil 1 &
Shichun Xu 2

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250 Citations

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This study is motivated by two research questions: (1) Which recent contributions have been driving the research agenda in international business? (2) Which emerging themes in the literature are likely to set the stage for future work? To examine these questions, the study examined scholarly work in international business over the time period 1996–2006 in six leading international business journals ( Journal of International Business Studies , Management International Review , Journal of World Business , International Marketing Review , Journal of International Marketing, and International Business Review ). Next, a Delphi study of the most prolific authors in these journals over the same time period was conducted to delineate a future research agenda in international business. Addressing these two research questions provides us with a more complete understanding of the progress made to date in international business research, and provides a glimpse of the future.

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Emerging Research Themes in International Business

What merits greater scholarly attention in international business?

Research Methods in International Business: Challenges and Advances

The table of contents of each of the six journals was used to develop a data set of author productivity following the adjusted authorship approach employed by Inkpen and Beamish (1994) .

One author of the 115 most prolific scholars is deceased, thus resulting in a sample frame of 114.

Of these, 112 articles (8.92%) were cited 20 times or more, accounting for 3815 citations (39.98%); 180 articles (14.34%) were cited at least 10 but less than 20 times, accounting for 2436 citations (25.53%); 200 articles (15.94%) were cited at least six but less than 10 times, accounting for 1480 citations (15.51%); and 717 articles (60.80%) were cited five times or less, accounting for 1810 citations (18.97%).

We followed Werner and Brouthers's (2002) definition of international management in the classification of international business articles. An article is classified as related to international business when there is clear indication of international business content in the title, abstract, or keywords.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the three anonymous reviewers and the Editor, Arie Lewin, for valuable feedback on early versions of this manuscript.

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Department of Marketing, The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA

David A Griffith & Salih Tamer Cavusgil

Department of Marketing & Logistics, College of Business Administration, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA

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Accepted by Arie Y Lewin, Editor-in-Chief, 18 June 2007. This paper has been with the authors for two revisions.

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Griffith, D., Tamer Cavusgil, S. & Xu, S. Emerging themes in international business research. J Int Bus Stud 39 , 1220–1235 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400412

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Received : 10 November 2005

Revised : 18 June 2007

Accepted : 18 June 2007

Published : 19 June 2008

Issue Date : 01 October 2008

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400412

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Microfinance has been seen as a vehicle for economic mobility in developing countries, but the results have been mixed. Research by Natalia Rigol and Ben Roth probes how different lending approaches might serve entrepreneurs better.

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https://www.nist.gov/chips

CHIPS for America

About CHIPS for America

Semiconductors, or chips, are tiny electronic devices that are integral to America’s economic and national security. These devices power tools as simple as a light switch and as complex as a fighter jet or a smartphone. Semiconductors power our consumer electronics, automobiles, data centers, critical infrastructure, and virtually all military systems. They are also essential building blocks of the technologies that will shape our future, including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and clean energy.

While the United States remains a global leader in semiconductor design and research and development, it has fallen behind in manufacturing and now accounts for only about 10 percent of global commercial production. Today, none of the most advanced logic and memory chips—the chips that power PCs, smartphones, and supercomputers—are manufactured at commercial scale in the United States. In addition, many elements of the semiconductor supply chain are geographically concentrated, leaving them vulnerable to disruption and endangering the global economy and U.S. national security.

That’s why President Biden signed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 into law. The law provides the Department of Commerce with $50 billion for a suite of programs to strengthen and revitalize the U.S. position in semiconductor research, development, and manufacturing—while also investing in American workers. CHIPS for America encompasses two offices responsible for implementing the law: The CHIPS Research and Development Office is investing $11 billion into developing a robust domestic R&D ecosystem, while the CHIPS Program Office is dedicating $39 billion to provide incentives for investment in facilities and equipment in the United States. Learn more about CHIPS for America from this video message from the Secretary of Commerce .

News and Press Releases

Square with rounded edges. Fill of square looks like American flag. Coming off the sides of the square are lines with unfilled circles at end. Words underneath: CHIPS for AMERICA

Biden-Harris Administration Announces Preliminary Terms with Rocket Lab to Expand Production of Compound Semiconductors that Power Spacecrafts and Satellites

Biden-harris administration announces preliminary terms with absolics to support development of glass substrate technology for semiconductor advanced packaging, biden-harris administration announces preliminary terms with polar semiconductor to establish an independent american foundry, chips for america announces $285 million funding opportunity for a digital twin and semiconductor chips manufacturing usa institute.

Marla Dowell Recognized as a Distinguished Executive with 2023 Presidential Rank Award

For general inquiries about CHIPS for America, contact askchips [at] chips.gov (askchips[at]chips[dot]gov) .

For inquiries about the CHIPS Incentives Program, contact apply [at] chips.gov .

For Congressional inquiries about CHIPS for America, contact legislativeaffairs [at] chips.gov (legislativeaffairs[at]chips[dot]gov) .

To request a meeting with a CHIPS staff member or an appearance at an event, visit https://askchips.chips.gov .

The CHIPS Incentives Program Portal can be found at https://applications.chips.gov .

The state of AI in 2023: Generative AI’s breakout year

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The latest annual McKinsey Global Survey on the current state of AI confirms the explosive growth of generative AI (gen AI) tools . Less than a year after many of these tools debuted, one-third of our survey respondents say their organizations are using gen AI regularly in at least one business function. Amid recent advances, AI has risen from a topic relegated to tech employees to a focus of company leaders: nearly one-quarter of surveyed C-suite executives say they are personally using gen AI tools for work, and more than one-quarter of respondents from companies using AI say gen AI is already on their boards’ agendas. What’s more, 40 percent of respondents say their organizations will increase their investment in AI overall because of advances in gen AI. The findings show that these are still early days for managing gen AI–related risks, with less than half of respondents saying their organizations are mitigating even the risk they consider most relevant: inaccuracy.

The organizations that have already embedded AI capabilities have been the first to explore gen AI’s potential, and those seeing the most value from more traditional AI capabilities—a group we call AI high performers—are already outpacing others in their adoption of gen AI tools. 1 We define AI high performers as organizations that, according to respondents, attribute at least 20 percent of their EBIT to AI adoption.

The expected business disruption from gen AI is significant, and respondents predict meaningful changes to their workforces. They anticipate workforce cuts in certain areas and large reskilling efforts to address shifting talent needs. Yet while the use of gen AI might spur the adoption of other AI tools, we see few meaningful increases in organizations’ adoption of these technologies. The percent of organizations adopting any AI tools has held steady since 2022, and adoption remains concentrated within a small number of business functions.

It’s early days still, but use of gen AI is already widespread
Leading companies are already ahead with gen AI
AI-related talent needs shift, and AI’s workforce effects are expected to be substantial
With all eyes on gen AI, AI adoption and impact remain steady

About the research

1. it’s early days still, but use of gen ai is already widespread.

The findings from the survey—which was in the field in mid-April 2023—show that, despite gen AI’s nascent public availability, experimentation with the tools is already relatively common, and respondents expect the new capabilities to transform their industries. Gen AI has captured interest across the business population: individuals across regions, industries, and seniority levels are using gen AI for work and outside of work. Seventy-nine percent of all respondents say they’ve had at least some exposure to gen AI, either for work or outside of work, and 22 percent say they are regularly using it in their own work. While reported use is quite similar across seniority levels, it is highest among respondents working in the technology sector and those in North America.

Organizations, too, are now commonly using gen AI. One-third of all respondents say their organizations are already regularly using generative AI in at least one function—meaning that 60 percent of organizations with reported AI adoption are using gen AI. What’s more, 40 percent of those reporting AI adoption at their organizations say their companies expect to invest more in AI overall thanks to generative AI, and 28 percent say generative AI use is already on their board’s agenda. The most commonly reported business functions using these newer tools are the same as those in which AI use is most common overall: marketing and sales, product and service development, and service operations, such as customer care and back-office support. This suggests that organizations are pursuing these new tools where the most value is. In our previous research , these three areas, along with software engineering, showed the potential to deliver about 75 percent of the total annual value from generative AI use cases.

In these early days, expectations for gen AI’s impact are high : three-quarters of all respondents expect gen AI to cause significant or disruptive change in the nature of their industry’s competition in the next three years. Survey respondents working in the technology and financial-services industries are the most likely to expect disruptive change from gen AI. Our previous research shows that, while all industries are indeed likely to see some degree of disruption, the level of impact is likely to vary. 2 “ The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier ,” McKinsey, June 14, 2023. Industries relying most heavily on knowledge work are likely to see more disruption—and potentially reap more value. While our estimates suggest that tech companies, unsurprisingly, are poised to see the highest impact from gen AI—adding value equivalent to as much as 9 percent of global industry revenue—knowledge-based industries such as banking (up to 5 percent), pharmaceuticals and medical products (also up to 5 percent), and education (up to 4 percent) could experience significant effects as well. By contrast, manufacturing-based industries, such as aerospace, automotives, and advanced electronics, could experience less disruptive effects. This stands in contrast to the impact of previous technology waves that affected manufacturing the most and is due to gen AI’s strengths in language-based activities, as opposed to those requiring physical labor.

Responses show many organizations not yet addressing potential risks from gen AI

According to the survey, few companies seem fully prepared for the widespread use of gen AI—or the business risks these tools may bring. Just 21 percent of respondents reporting AI adoption say their organizations have established policies governing employees’ use of gen AI technologies in their work. And when we asked specifically about the risks of adopting gen AI, few respondents say their companies are mitigating the most commonly cited risk with gen AI: inaccuracy. Respondents cite inaccuracy more frequently than both cybersecurity and regulatory compliance, which were the most common risks from AI overall in previous surveys. Just 32 percent say they’re mitigating inaccuracy, a smaller percentage than the 38 percent who say they mitigate cybersecurity risks. Interestingly, this figure is significantly lower than the percentage of respondents who reported mitigating AI-related cybersecurity last year (51 percent). Overall, much as we’ve seen in previous years, most respondents say their organizations are not addressing AI-related risks.

2. Leading companies are already ahead with gen AI

The survey results show that AI high performers—that is, organizations where respondents say at least 20 percent of EBIT in 2022 was attributable to AI use—are going all in on artificial intelligence, both with gen AI and more traditional AI capabilities. These organizations that achieve significant value from AI are already using gen AI in more business functions than other organizations do, especially in product and service development and risk and supply chain management. When looking at all AI capabilities—including more traditional machine learning capabilities, robotic process automation, and chatbots—AI high performers also are much more likely than others to use AI in product and service development, for uses such as product-development-cycle optimization, adding new features to existing products, and creating new AI-based products. These organizations also are using AI more often than other organizations in risk modeling and for uses within HR such as performance management and organization design and workforce deployment optimization.

AI high performers are much more likely than others to use AI in product and service development.

Another difference from their peers: high performers’ gen AI efforts are less oriented toward cost reduction, which is a top priority at other organizations. Respondents from AI high performers are twice as likely as others to say their organizations’ top objective for gen AI is to create entirely new businesses or sources of revenue—and they’re most likely to cite the increase in the value of existing offerings through new AI-based features.

As we’ve seen in previous years , these high-performing organizations invest much more than others in AI: respondents from AI high performers are more than five times more likely than others to say they spend more than 20 percent of their digital budgets on AI. They also use AI capabilities more broadly throughout the organization. Respondents from high performers are much more likely than others to say that their organizations have adopted AI in four or more business functions and that they have embedded a higher number of AI capabilities. For example, respondents from high performers more often report embedding knowledge graphs in at least one product or business function process, in addition to gen AI and related natural-language capabilities.

While AI high performers are not immune to the challenges of capturing value from AI, the results suggest that the difficulties they face reflect their relative AI maturity, while others struggle with the more foundational, strategic elements of AI adoption. Respondents at AI high performers most often point to models and tools, such as monitoring model performance in production and retraining models as needed over time, as their top challenge. By comparison, other respondents cite strategy issues, such as setting a clearly defined AI vision that is linked with business value or finding sufficient resources.

The findings offer further evidence that even high performers haven’t mastered best practices regarding AI adoption, such as machine-learning-operations (MLOps) approaches, though they are much more likely than others to do so. For example, just 35 percent of respondents at AI high performers report that where possible, their organizations assemble existing components, rather than reinvent them, but that’s a much larger share than the 19 percent of respondents from other organizations who report that practice.

Many specialized MLOps technologies and practices may be needed to adopt some of the more transformative uses cases that gen AI applications can deliver—and do so as safely as possible. Live-model operations is one such area, where monitoring systems and setting up instant alerts to enable rapid issue resolution can keep gen AI systems in check. High performers stand out in this respect but have room to grow: one-quarter of respondents from these organizations say their entire system is monitored and equipped with instant alerts, compared with just 12 percent of other respondents.

3. AI-related talent needs shift, and AI’s workforce effects are expected to be substantial

Our latest survey results show changes in the roles that organizations are filling to support their AI ambitions. In the past year, organizations using AI most often hired data engineers, machine learning engineers, and Al data scientists—all roles that respondents commonly reported hiring in the previous survey. But a much smaller share of respondents report hiring AI-related-software engineers—the most-hired role last year—than in the previous survey (28 percent in the latest survey, down from 39 percent). Roles in prompt engineering have recently emerged, as the need for that skill set rises alongside gen AI adoption, with 7 percent of respondents whose organizations have adopted AI reporting those hires in the past year.

The findings suggest that hiring for AI-related roles remains a challenge but has become somewhat easier over the past year, which could reflect the spate of layoffs at technology companies from late 2022 through the first half of 2023. Smaller shares of respondents than in the previous survey report difficulty hiring for roles such as AI data scientists, data engineers, and data-visualization specialists, though responses suggest that hiring machine learning engineers and AI product owners remains as much of a challenge as in the previous year.

Looking ahead to the next three years, respondents predict that the adoption of AI will reshape many roles in the workforce. Generally, they expect more employees to be reskilled than to be separated. Nearly four in ten respondents reporting AI adoption expect more than 20 percent of their companies’ workforces will be reskilled, whereas 8 percent of respondents say the size of their workforces will decrease by more than 20 percent.

Looking specifically at gen AI’s predicted impact, service operations is the only function in which most respondents expect to see a decrease in workforce size at their organizations. This finding generally aligns with what our recent research suggests: while the emergence of gen AI increased our estimate of the percentage of worker activities that could be automated (60 to 70 percent, up from 50 percent), this doesn’t necessarily translate into the automation of an entire role.

AI high performers are expected to conduct much higher levels of reskilling than other companies are. Respondents at these organizations are over three times more likely than others to say their organizations will reskill more than 30 percent of their workforces over the next three years as a result of AI adoption.

4. With all eyes on gen AI, AI adoption and impact remain steady

While the use of gen AI tools is spreading rapidly, the survey data doesn’t show that these newer tools are propelling organizations’ overall AI adoption. The share of organizations that have adopted AI overall remains steady, at least for the moment, with 55 percent of respondents reporting that their organizations have adopted AI. Less than a third of respondents continue to say that their organizations have adopted AI in more than one business function, suggesting that AI use remains limited in scope. Product and service development and service operations continue to be the two business functions in which respondents most often report AI adoption, as was true in the previous four surveys. And overall, just 23 percent of respondents say at least 5 percent of their organizations’ EBIT last year was attributable to their use of AI—essentially flat with the previous survey—suggesting there is much more room to capture value.

Organizations continue to see returns in the business areas in which they are using AI, and they plan to increase investment in the years ahead. We see a majority of respondents reporting AI-related revenue increases within each business function using AI. And looking ahead, more than two-thirds expect their organizations to increase their AI investment over the next three years.

The online survey was in the field April 11 to 21, 2023, and garnered responses from 1,684 participants representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, functional specialties, and tenures. Of those respondents, 913 said their organizations had adopted AI in at least one function and were asked questions about their organizations’ AI use. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP.

The survey content and analysis were developed by Michael Chui , a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute and a partner in McKinsey’s Bay Area office, where Lareina Yee is a senior partner; Bryce Hall , an associate partner in the Washington, DC, office; and senior partners Alex Singla and Alexander Sukharevsky , global leaders of QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, based in the Chicago and London offices, respectively.

They wish to thank Shivani Gupta, Abhisek Jena, Begum Ortaoglu, Barr Seitz, and Li Zhang for their contributions to this work.

This article was edited by Heather Hanselman, an editor in the Atlanta office.

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The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier

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What is generative AI?

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Exploring opportunities in the generative AI value chain

Advancing social justice, promoting decent work ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations

Topic portal

Forced labour is a severe violation of human rights affecting 28 million of men, women and children in all countries and all economic sectors. It is rooted in poverty, discrimination and lack of social protection, and it disrupts fair competition between businesses. The issue has been at the heart of the ILO mandate to promote Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, leaving no one behind.

What is forced labour?

Data and research

Our impact, their voices

Forced Labour Observatory

Facts and figures

men, women and children are in forced labour

of forced labour happens in the private economy

236 billion US$

generated in illegal profits every year

countries ratified the ILO Forced Labour Protocol

International Labour Standards on Forced Labour

Convention No. 29 (C29)
Convention No. 105 (C105)
Protocol No. 29 (P29)
Recommendation 203 (R203)

The Forced Labour Convention (No. 29), adopted in 1930, contains the definition of forced labour and provides that it should be punished as a crime. This is one of the most ratified ILO standards.

Text of the Convention
Ratifications
Countries that have not ratified yet

The Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No. 105), adopted in 1957, deals with state-imposed forms of forced labour. This is one of the most ratified ILO standards.

The Protocol to the Forced Labour Convention, (P029), adopted in 2014, requires ratifying countries to take effective measures to prevent forced labour, protect victims and ensure their access to justice.

The Protocol complements the Convention No. 29, therefore only countries that have ratified this Convention can ratify the Protocol.

Text of the Protocol

The Forced Labour Recommendation (No. 203), adopted in 2014, provides further guidance on how to implement the Protocol.

It is a non-binding document that does not require ratification.

Text of the Recommendation

What can the ILO offer and how?

Eradicating Forced Labour: Partnering strategically with ILO
Good practices in addressing Forced Labour (forthcoming)
Developing National Action Plans on Forced Labour

The Fair Recruitment Initiative

The ILO Global Business Network on Forced Labour

8.7 Accelerator Lab

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Delegates from Uganda, Malawi and Kenya pose for a picture together

Uganda, Malawi, and Kenya sign communique to combat child labour in tea supply chain

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Forging a future through knowledge sharing: Innovative Solutions to reduce child labour and forced labour in Africa

Publications

Survey on tenant growers in Malawi’s tobacco industry

Nigeria Forced Labour Survey 2022

8.7 Accelerator Lab: Theory of change for the agriculture sector

Ship to Shore Rights South East Asia - Indonesia

Child labour and forced labour

Multi Partner Fund

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200 International Business Topics
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International Business Research and the World Investment Report : “Big Questions” and Grand Challenges

Introduction

The World Investment Report at 30

“Big Questions”

1. Explaining flows of FDI.

2. Explaining the existence, strategy and organisation of MNEs.

3. Moving from internationalization to globalization, “new forms” of international business operations.

4. Explaining the emergence of and strategies of MNEs from emerging economies.

5. Explaining the growth, causes, and consequences of offshoring and disaggregation of value chains.

6. Understanding how MNEs respond to social responsibility and sustainability.

7. Appraising policy towards MNEs.

Grand Challenges

Increasing VUCA in the World Economy

The Fracture in Globalization

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Innovation and international business: A systematic literature review

Introduction

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Conclusions

1. Introduction