Perspectives on Contemporary Challenges to International Business

Abstract

Reflecting the discontinuous, diverse and complex backdrop against which it is enacted, international business (IB) is synonymous with big challenges. Familiar challenges such as cultural and institutional differences (Hofstede, 1991; Leung, Bhagat, Buchan, Erez and Gibson, 2005; Bjorkman, Smale, Sumelius, Suutari and Lu, 2008; Peng, Wang and Jiang, 2008) are perpetually potent, but ‘new’ concerns are also constantly surfacing to engage the attention and interest of businesses: climate change and sustainability; international terrorism/security threats; subprime crisis; global credit squeeze; rising energy and food prices; threats of global recession; corruption and corporate scandals; digital piracy and intellectual property theft and so on (Goodman, 2004; Luo, 2008; Hill, 2007; Romilly, 2007). These headline issues bear varying levels of relevance to businesses operating around the world, with the extent of salience dictated by firms’ geographical location, nature of industry and spread of activity. Nevertheless, international businesses tend, by their typically expansive nature, to be more exposed to these contemporary challenges than purely domestic businesses.