International Business in Turkish Literature: Content Analysis of 1990-2019
Kübra MertInternational business has been a remarkable discipline in international literature especially in the last 30 years. The focus of the literature which includes many different dimensions, is the process of internationalization of enterprises originated from developing countries in recent years. In this context the aim of this study is to determine the boundaries of Turkey as a developing country in terms of developing their international business research is to better understand and work to eliminate the need for there to measure trends in the sub-areas. In the study, the 121 of Turkish-based international business studies were examined by content analysis in national and international journals in the years 1990-2018. According to the results of the study using Werner’s international business categorization, the prominent issues in the international business discipline in Turkish literature are; international change (1990-2000), global business environment (2000-2010) and international enterprises (2010-2018). The interest in Turkish literature is very limited compared to the international interest. Therefore, there are many questions that researchers can answer. Keywords International business, internationalization, international corporations, content analysis, Turkey.
Türk Yazınında Uluslararası İşletmecilik: 1990-2019 Yıllarına Dair Bir İçerik Analizi
Kübra MertUluslararası işletmecilik, özellikle son 30 yılda uluslararası yazında oldukça dikkat çeken bir disiplin olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Birçok farklı boyutu içeren uluslararası işletmecilik yazınının odak noktasında son yıllarda gelişmekte olan ülke kökenli işletmelerin uluslararasılaşma süreçleri vardır. Bu bağlamda bu çalışmanın amacı, gelişmekte olan bir ülke olarak Türkiye açısından uluslararası işletmecilik araştırmalarının gelişmekte olan sınırlarını belirlemek, daha iyi anlamak ve alt alanlarındaki eğilimleri ölçmek için var olan ihtiyacı gidermeye çalışmaktır. Çalışmada 1990-2019 yılları aralığında uluslararası işletmecilik alanında Türkiye kökenli ulusal ve uluslararası dergilerde yayınlanan 135 adet tam metin makale içerik analizi yöntemi ile incelenmiştir. Werner’in uluslararası işletmecilik kategorizasyonunun kullanıldığı çalışmanın sonuçlarına göre Türk yazınında uluslararası işletmecilik disiplininde öne çıkan konular; 1990-1999 yılları aralığında uluslararası değişim, 2000-2009 yılları aralığında küresel işletme çevresi ve 2010-2019 yılları aralığında uluslararası işletmelerdir ve alana dair Türk yazınındaki ilgi, kimi sebepler sonucu uluslararası alandaki ilgiye göre oldukça sınırlıdır. Bu sebeple araştırmacıların önünde Türk uluslararası işletmecilik alanında cevaplayabilecekleri birçok soru bulunmaktadır.
Background and Purpose
In general, internationalization is the geographic outward movement of a business in its operations. In today’s competitive world, the only opportunity for the growth and profitability of a business is to open to foreign markets. However, globally, international business research has gained momentum in recent years and exponentially grew as a complex field of research in the late 1990s. The area of international business has grown so significantly over the past three decades due to strategic imperatives and environmental changes. Studies on this literature are mostly of international origin. For this reason, there is a need to better understand and to measure trends in international business studies in the sub-areas for Turkey. This study aims to serve as a resource for future research by shedding light on how trends in international business research have evolved over time in Turkish literature. The study provides an overview of international business literature in terms of articles of Turkish origin published between 1990 and 2019. The research questions are as follows:
- As a developing country, where do Turkish studies stand in international business literature?
- Which subjects do Turkish researchers study most in the international business discipline?
- What are the patterns of the studies in terms of time and content?
Methodology
In this research, which is based on Werner’s international business categories, 135 fulltext articles published in the field of international business are examined and classified. These categories are: global business environment, internationalization, entry mode decisions, international joint ventures, foreign direct investment, international exchange, transfer of knowledge, strategic alliances and networks, multinational enterprises, subsidiary-HQ relations, subsidiary and multinational team management, and expatriate management. The data obtained from the articles examined in this study were collected using the content analysis method. In this study, the data were scanned, classified, coded, and analyzed by a single encoder. The 135 full-text articles that are the subject of the research were published in 98 different national and international journals.
Findings and Conclusion
Since the 1990s, international activities have changed rapidly and continuously. Therefore, interest in the subject of the international arena is intense. However, when the Turkish literature was analyzed, the interest was observed to be quite low (6 studies in total) between 1990–2000. What is interesting is that this interest remained at a very low level, even in periods when the investments originating from developing countries increased markedly (2000–2012 time interval). Even after years when interest started to increase compared to other period ranges (2016–2017), there was a significant decrease in the number of studies.
According to the findings, no studies were found in the Turkish literature in the category of Werner’s subsidiary-HQ relations (sub-categories: subsidiary role, including subsidiary strategies and typologies, subsidiary control, and subsidiary performance).
The topics that are prominent in the discipline of international business in the distribution of years are international exchange, between the years 1990–1999 (3 studies); the global business environment, between the years 2000–2009 (12 studies); and multinational enterprises, between the years 2010–2019 (24 studies). These titles also emphasize the popular topics of the period, considering the years.
Studies on internationalization theories are far below the expected level. The internationalization processes of the enterprises of developing countries promise to change world trade and provide a new field of work for the development of international business theories. However, even the international literature in this regard frequently conflicts and does not follow a certain pattern. Regardless of the conceptual framework, theoretical infrastructures are very weak in the studies of international business in Turkish literature.
With the findings obtained from the studies, it was observed that interest in internationalization in Turkish literature remained infertile compared to other management and organization subfields. According to the data, the levels of analysis in international business studies in Turkish literature are also limited.
With the results obtained from the study, the research questions that are thought to be useful to researchers in the future were also determined. Along with these research questions and other questions that researchers will find interest in, the international business sub-field will undoubtedly expand in Turkish literature.
