Jibs Literature Positioning

---
name: jibs-literature-positioning
description: Use when positioning a Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) manuscript within the international-business conversation — joining a live IB debate, problematizing rather than gap-spotting, and situating the work against the JIBS canon and adjacent IB outlets. Frames the conversation; it does not state the final contribution claim (jibs-contribution-framing).
---

# Positioning in the IB Conversation (jibs-literature-positioning)

## When to trigger

- Your introduction reads as "little research has examined X" (gap-spotting)
- You cite general-management work but not the IB conversation your paper joins
- A reviewer asks "how does this engage existing IB theory?"
- You are unsure which IB debate your finding actually speaks to

## Problematize, do not gap-spot

JIBS, as a phenomenon-driven journal, rewards papers that **problematize** an assumption in the IB literature rather than catalog an empty cell. Identify a tension, an anomaly, or a contested mechanism in IB scholarship and show why resolving it matters for understanding cross-border activity. "No one has studied this country" is not a contribution; "the dominant internationalization-process account predicts X, but this phenomenon shows the opposite" is.

## Join a live IB conversation

Situate the work inside a recognizable, ongoing IB debate — for example:

- Internalization vs. externalization and global value-chain governance
- Uppsala incremental commitment vs. born-global / rapid internationalization
- Institutional distance and "institutional voids" in emerging markets
- Emerging-market MNEs (springboard/LLL) vs. classic OLI predictions
- Cultural distance critiques (the "Kogut–Singh index" debate) and measurement
- Subsidiary autonomy, HQ–subsidiary relations, and the metanational firm
- De-/re-globalization, geopolitics, and the international political economy of the MNE

Name the conversation, the camps, and where your study intervenes.

## Engage the JIBS canon and route adjacent literatures

JIBS papers are expected to cite the field's foundational and current IB work, including relevant JIBS articles and the journal's editorial canon. Engage the **AIB Research Methods SIG "From the Editors" editorials** where they bear on your design choices, and treat country/culture-as-level as a positioning commitment, not an afterthought. Distinguish your contribution from adjacent venues (JWB, MIR, GSJ, IBR) so the editor sees why this belongs at JIBS specifically.

## Output format

```
【Problematization】the IB assumption/tension you unsettle ...
【Conversation joined】named IB debate + camps ...
【Intervention】where and how you intervene ...
【Canon engaged】foundational + current JIBS/IB cites; relevant FTE editorials ...
【Why JIBS not JWB/MIR】 ...
【Next step】jibs-methods (design) → jibs-contribution-framing (claim)
```

## Anti-patterns

- Gap-spotting ("understudied context") as the central justification.
- Reviewing general-management literature while ignoring the IB conversation.
- Citing a foreign context but no IB theory the paper advances.
- Failing to distinguish the contribution from JWB/MIR/IBR-level work.