Cognitive tendencies in international business research: Implications of a"narrow vision"

Some scholars have suggested that international bu sin ess (IB) research su ffers from a "narrow vision." This paper tests this thesis by extending pri nciples of the cognitive sciences to study the ontological and epistemologi cal features of IB research from, 1970 through, 1997. operationally I asses s IB scholars' schematic representation of their logic of interpretation as indicated by, 159 figures, including 60 models, conceptualizations, and fr ame-works, culled from 27 years of JIBS publication. Profiling these data b y absolute and relative indicators of time shows that analog reasoning domi nates present logics of interpretation in IB research. The longitudinal pro file and time series analysis of the structural features of schematic repre sentations in JIBS spotlights significantly decreasing comprehensiveness, c onnectedness, and complexity. I close by noting the intellectual merit of s cholars' call for dialectic inquiry, and the task this imposes on the commu nity of IB researchers particularly so within the Academy of International Business.