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Research on the Import Activities of Firms 1960–2010

Review, Assessment, and Future Directions

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Abstract

  • The article presents the findings of a comprehensive review of 321 import-related articles published in business journals and books during the period 1960–2010.

  • Using a content analysis, the articles were assessed on four dimensions referring to the research design, scope of research, research methodology, and key thematic areas addressed.

  • The assessment revealed that this body of research has advanced over time from an exploratory and descriptive phase into one that is characterized by greater maturity and sophistication.

  • Based on input extracted from the articles reviewed, as well as from a survey conducted among prolific scholars in the field, various theoretical, methodological, and other guidelines for future research are provided.

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Notes

  1. Although purchasing from abroad is becoming inevitable for many firms, an examination of the international business literature reveals a preponderance of export-related articles and a scarcity of research into importing. Obviously, importing, as a field of research, has been relatively disregarded, which is hard to understand since it is equally important to exporting, the other side of the international trade equation (Ghymn et al. 1999; Katsikeas and Kaleka 1999; Katsikeas et al. 2000; Katsikeas and Dalgic 1995; Katsikeas 1998; Katsikeas and Leonidou 1996; Kotabe 1993; Leonidou 1988; Liang and Parkhe 1997; Skarmeas and Katsikeas 2001; Skarmeas 2006).

  2. Although it would be interesting to include in the review articles published in journals and books specializing in economics, this was beyond the scope of the present research mainly because of the non-managerial way in which they examine import-related issues. However, a review of articles published in journals and books specializing in economics could be the object of a separate study that would complement the findings of this study.

  3. In some cases, importer and exporter perspectives were interrelated, and whenever this occurred the articles were incorporated in our analysis. However, the study did not include articles with a purely exporting focus, because they have been the object of an extensive review conducted recently by Leonidou and Katsikeas (2010).

  4. Notably, until the end of the 1980s, the major publication outlets for import-related articles were, with a few exceptions, mainstream business journals. However, since the early 1990s, this trend has changed toward the publication of importing studies in new journals specializing in international business, management, marketing and/or purchasing.

  5. Some of the issues encountered during the selection and coding process of articles were: (a) the existence of misleading keywords and/or titles, that led to the retrieval of articles that were irrelevant for the purposes of this study; (b) the fact that some of the import-related articles published in books were difficult to identify, unless physically inspected; (c) problems in identifying import-related articles published in the early phases of importing research, because of their non-inclusion in electronic databases; (d) the fact that some of the articles did not provide information clearly relating to certain parts of the coding frame; and (e) the non-applicability of certain methodological issues in some articles due to their reliance on secondary data.

  6. Although the initial idea was to have five research periods, namely 1960–1969, 1970–1979, 1980–1989, 1990–1999, and 2000–2010, the number of import-related articles published in the first two periods was too small (only 19) to allow for a separate percentage analysis. For this reason, the first three decades were merged into one time period.

  7. This section is based on Emory’s (1980) classificatory framework of analyzing research designs, which focuses on problem crystallization, topical scope, time dimension, research instrument, communication mode, control of variables, and variable association. This analysis provides a useful indication of the quality, rigor, and sophistication of the research conducted in a specific field.

  8. Overall, research into importing has not been so impactful, as demonstrated by the fact that 67.6% of the articles reviewed had less than ten citations The scarcity of citations could relate to the fact that, as opposed to other areas of international business (e.g., exporting, joint venturing, wholly-owned foreign production), the total number of articles written on importing was relatively small. Moreover, most of the research on importing has not been published in top mainstream business journals, which are usually characterized by a high impact factor. Furthermore, the number of scholars interested in international business is much lower than those focusing on mainstream business issues, thus reducing the possibility of extensive citations of their work.

  9. The survey among the top contributors to the importing field had a threefold objective: (a) to verify the validity of the list of the key thematic areas and specific research topics identified from the literature; (b) to suggest venues of research which were not included in the initial list; and (c) to prioritize future research on importing by ranking the importance of the various thematic groups, as well as the specific research topics within each group.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Professor Constantine S. Katsikeas and Professor Neng Liang for their insightful comments and constructive input on earlier versions of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Business, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey

    Bilge Aykol Ph.D.

  2. Division of Marketing, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Dayananda Palihawadana Ph.D.

  3. Department of Public and Business Administration, School of Economics and Management, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Leonidas C. Leonidou Ph.D.

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  1. Bilge Aykol Ph.D.
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Aykol, B., Palihawadana, D. & Leonidou, L. Research on the Import Activities of Firms 1960–2010. Manag Int Rev 53, 215–250 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-012-0143-2

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