SHARPE, Diana (2018). Researching the multinational corporation: contributions of critical realist ethnography. Critical perspectives on international business, 14 (4), 383-403.
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Sharpe Researching the multinational corporation.pdf - Accepted Version
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Sharpe Researching the multinational corporation.pdf - Accepted Version
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Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the contributions that critical realist ethnographies can
make to an understanding of the multinational corporation.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on a discussion of methodological challenges in
researching the multinational corporation and the ways in which critical realist ethnographies can respond to
these challenges. The example of research on the transfer of management practices is used to illustrate this.
Findings – Taking the example of researching the transfer of management practices within the
multinational, the paper argues that the potential of critical realist ethnography including critical realist
global ethnography to contribute to the field of International Business and International Management
remains relatively untapped.
Research limitations/implications – Adopting the sociological imagination of the critical realist
ethnographer has implications for the kinds of questions that are asked by the researcher and the ways in
which we seek to address these methodologically. Researching from a critical standpoint fruitful empirical
themes for further research relate to the experience of change for example in business systems,
internationalization of organizations and “globalization”.
Practical implications – The critical realist ethnographer can contribute insights into the complex social
and political processes within the multinational and provide insights into how social structures are both
impacting on and impacted by individuals and groups. Ethnographic research located within a critical realist
framework has the potential to address questions of how stability and change take place within specific
structural, cultural and power relations.
Originality/value – At the methodological level, this paper highlights the potential of critical realist
ethnography in researching the multinational, in addressing significant questions facing the critical
researcher and in gaining a privileged insight into the lived experience of globalization.
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