A Plea for More Politics in the International Business Research Agenda

This paper suggests that current research on international business should provide for a more prominent role of Politics in its analysis. International research examines transactions that reach across national borders, yet nations and their borders have so far not been sufficiently operationalized to be integrated into a more comprehensive analysis. I draw on an existing paper by Charap and Harm (2000) that integrates rudimentary political structures into a generalized economic calculus. There, it is argued that Politics can be defined as rent-seeking, and that political regimes merely differ according to the nature of rent-seeking activities. This paper uses some stylized notions of political decision-making in dictatorial and democratic regimes to draw inferences on political attitudes towards international trade, direct investment, and regional business clusters. An outlook for management policies towards political decision-makers is provided.