ABSTRACT
Like all academic disciplines, international business (IB) can be framed in many ways. The chapter begins by explaining the choice that the book has made – based on comparative research but also on the author’s personal professional experience – not to espouse a single, one best way of doing IB but instead to empower learners by familiarising them with different possible responses to an array of cross-border situations that practitioners face. It is an approach emphasising the sense of difference contained within the term “international” as opposed to the idea of convergence conveyed through the term “globalisation” – a nuance that is not only semantic but also philosophical in nature. The chapter introduces further vocabulary specific to the study of IB along with recent relevant data, thereby reminding learners that the discipline is rooted in theoretical as well as empirical concepts. It concludes with a brief review of both the external and internal drivers of multinational enterprise (MNE), translating the division within IB analysis (hence within this book) between macro- and micro-level drivers.
