Book review: The Oxford handbook of international business strategy

Abstract

The title of this book, International Business Strategy, immediately begs the question: How does this differ from strategy in general? In the Introduction, the editors suggest several possibilities, including the need to operate across varied and changing institutional contexts, compete with diverse local and foreign competitors, deal with issues of global value chain sustainability, and the particular issues created by distance in areas such as human resource management. They also include broader considerations, such as the need to deal with the challenges presented by the radical potential of nascent technologies and the age-old problem of resource allocation within the firm. While all of these are undoubtedly valid, the reader is still left with an uneasy feeling that perhaps international business scholars working on strategy could benefit by giving more thought to pinpointing the distinctive dimensions that the international context adds. This might help guide us to where we might make a unique contribution to the theory and practice of strategy.