The area of International Business can broadly be subdivided into two main research streams: internationalization processes (e.g. FDI) and the management of the multinational corporation (MNC). The Department of International Business at Tübingen University has a clear focus on the latter.
More specifically, we investigate two related questions: 1. how is an MNC managing its human resources throughout the entire organization (i.e., headquarters and the various foreign subsidiaries) and across national and cultural boundaries? 2. how are those human resources utilized across cultures in order to achieve the organization’s strategic objectives?
We are particularly interested in the following topics:
- convergence vs. divergence of (HR) management practices
- subsidiary-headquarters relations
- impact of language on international business
- multinational teams
- trust, cooperation and conflict
- diversity management
- comparative HRM
- Japanese management
- Chinese management
Our research agenda lies at the intersection of International Business, Cross Cultural Management, International and Comparative Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior and International Strategy. But also disciplines in economics and social sciences are of interest to us such as Behavioral Game Theory, Experimental Economics, Cultural Studies and Linguistics. Accordingly, our research is clearly behavioral oriented. In terms of geographical coverage, we have actively collected data in a large number of countries in the Triad of Asia, Europe and North America.
