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Evolution of Central and Eastern Europe related international business

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Article  in  Journal of Business Research · January 2020

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.06.046

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 Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Business Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres

Evolution of Central and Eastern Europe related international business

research☆
⁎
Andreja Jakliča, , Krzysztof Oblojb, Marjan Svetličiča, Luka Kroneggera
a
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences, Slovenia
b
Kozminski University & University of Warsaw, Poland

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This study reviews the presence of articles related to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in Web of Science (WOS).
Central and Eastern Europe Bibliometric analysis first reveals the trends of CEE-related articles in the areas of international business (IB),
International business management and economics up to 2016. The results show steady growth in absolute and relative numbers after
Bibliometric network analysis 1990, intensifying since 2010. Second, we conduct topic research using network analysis with blockmodeling.
Blockmodeling
We identify a network of topics and their interrelations over time and used them to periodise the CEE-related
Internationalisation
Transition
research in IB. The most-cited CEE-related IB articles and the main citation path are also presented. The analysis
adds to the discussion of how the CEE region is explored in IB research, its contributions, impacts and the
challenges facing regional research in the future. In this study, a methodology and framework for performing a
comprehensive bibliometric analysis on regional IB research is applied.

1. Introduction in terms of both real-life problems and as an incentive for theory-

Research on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)1 in the field of in-
ternational business (IB) has expanded dynamically since the Iron
Curtain fell, and is today seen as a forerunner of the growing and varied
research on emerging markets and as a research springboard for ex-
ploring institutions' influence on business (Gelbuda, Meyer, & Delios,
2008; Kostova & Hult, 2016; Meyer & Peng, 2016). With the transition
to market economies, the CEE region became one of the most open, in
turn stimulating IB research to look at the interaction of radical societal
change, business development and foreign direct investment (FDI).
Scholars who were early to notice the region's (in transition) research
potential focused on testing the robustness of well-established IB the-
ories and their boundary conditions, especially resource-based and in-
stitutional theories, while setting the stage for more refined analysis,
particularly with respect to the rapidly changing contexts (Gelbuda
et al., 2008). Meyer and Peng (2005, 2016) helped legitimise IB re-
search in CEE and encouraged further research into emerging econo-
mies phenomena, chiefly in the context of examining the boundary
conditions.
However, the CEE region's recognised relevance within IB research
building (Meyer & Peng, 2005, 2016) lacks any comprehensive biblio-
metric overview of studies in IB literature related to the region. IB
scholars point to the relevance of region-oriented research (Hoon & M.,
2014; Jaklič, Rašković, & Schuch, 2018; Meyer & Peng, 2005; Rugman,
2005; Verbeke & Kano, 2012), yet bibliometric studies are not com-
monly used to detect a regional focus in IB. The existing studies gen-
erally aim to identify the key research domains, trends and the impact
of a selected topic (Ferreira, Li, Reis, & Serra, 2014), focus on selected
work or citation performance (Ferreira, 2011; Ferreira, Pinto, Serra, &
Filipe, 2011). The rapid evolution of bibliometric networks analysis
(Maltseva & Batagelj, 2018), improved data as well as recent trends in
regionalisation are however stimulating new uses. Information on re-
gion-related papers using bibliometric analysis can help understand
how important CEE-related research is in IB literature, and complement
the efforts of Meyer and Peng (2005, 2016).
Most CEE countries are now part of the European Union (EU) where
institutional changes keep the state as an important agent of formal and
informal institutional processes. Europe has become more integrated
and expanded over time (with the 2004, 2009 and 2013 enlargements),
but is challenged by possible contraction (Brexit). It faces the challenge

☆
We would like to thank Garry Bruton, Thomas Steger, Piotr Dzikowski, Aleksandra Wąsowska, the guest editors and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable
comments.
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: andreja.jaklic@fdv.uni-lj.si (A. Jaklič).
1
CEE in this analysis includes: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova,
Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.06.046
Received 12 November 2018; Received in revised form 28 June 2019; Accepted 29 June 2019
0148-2963/ © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Andreja Jaklič, et al., Journal of Business Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.06.046
A. Jaklič, et al.
of disintegration, rising nationalism, xenophobia, undemocratic pro-
cesses and great regional disparities. Institutionally ever more complex,
this Europe of “different speeds” poses several questions and chal-
lenges, not just economic and business ones. For managers, policy-
makers and the people living in CEE, perhaps the biggest questions are
whether the region will ever catch up with Western Europe, manage to
overcome the middle-income trap, stabilise its institutional regimes in a
way that respects democracy, market economy standards, human rights
and sustainability. The progress in this regard has so far been mixed.
Bibliometric analysis on CEE region research in the IB academic
literature aims to add to the discussion about the region's relevance in
IB research, contributions and the future research agenda. A systematic
quantitative overview of trends in SSCI journals complements the ex-
isting reviews that have considered a limited number of top IB and
management journals (Meyer & Peng, 2005). In this study, we apply a
methodology and framework for performing a comprehensive biblio-
metric analysis on regional IB research. To the best of our knowledge,
no such study has been performed in IB until now.
Our reflections are based on bibliometric analysis, which addresses
four questions: How well is CEE as a region and research territory re-
presented in the Web of Science database? How has IB research in the
CEE region developed over past decades? What has been the impact of
business research conducted in the CEE region? Which challenges and
opportunities may await CEE research in the future?
2. Methodology
We evaluate the volume, trends and impact of CEE-related IB re-
search (a field of observation) with a bibliometric analysis, relying on
the bibliographic data and networks analysis. To explore the dynamics
and topics of CEE-related research in IB, we used three levels of ana-
lysis:
a) metadata analysis; to identify trends in time and the volume of CEE-
related research;
b) content-based analysis; to identify topics of CEE-related papers in
international business, management and economics; and
c) citation analysis; to identify the most influential works and the main
citation path.
The methodological approach follows three steps: (i) data collec-
tion; (ii) network construction; and (iii) network analysis (the com-
munity detection method) with blockmodeling and main citation path
analysis.
2.1. Data collection
We obtained CEE-related IB research data from Thomson Reuters'
Web of Science (WOS) bibliographic service, the standard data set
underpinning the journal impact metrics found in the Journal Citation
Reports and the institutional performance metrics found in InCites,
considered the world's most trusted citation index for scientific and
scholarly research.2 The WOS Core Collection includes over 33,000
peer-reviewed, high-quality scholarly journals published around the
world (including open access journals) in more than 250 science, social
sciences, and humanities disciplines from 1900 till today.3
Our initial WOS search considered the period 1900–2016 and in-
cluded the fields of international business, international management,
and international economics.4 This broad search identified 85,954
2
We obtained the data on 13 February 2018.
3
https://www.library.ethz.ch/en/Resources/Databases/Web-of-Science-
Core-Collection
4
Topic search was defined as: TS = ((‘international business’ or ‘international
management’ or ‘international economics’) OR (business and economics) OR
2
Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
publications out of 1,674,890 publications. Every publication includes
data on all the authors, their affiliations, the abstract and keywords,
and all references cited. Searches for topic terms (i.e. CEE-related re-
search) in the following fields within a record included: (i) Title; (ii)
Abstract; and (iii) Keywords. The initial sample was further refined for
units with incomplete data (missing year of publication, keywords etc.),
which resulted in 84,241 units out of 1,635,131 publications.
The number of analysed publications was narrowed again by terms
representing their geographical focus. The keywords in this search were
combinations representing ‘Central and Eastern Europe’5 and the list of
individual countries. Lemmatisation was applied in the search procedure.
2.2. Network construction
The selected data from WOS were further treated by the Wos2Pajek
program (Mrvar, Ferligoj, Batagelj & Doreian, 2004, Mrvar & Batagelj,
2016). For the purpose of our research questions, we constructed four
different networks (citation network, three 2-mode networks linking
publications with authors, publications with keywords, and publica-
tions with journals). We also obtained year of publication for each unit
analysed. Besides the primary units gathered using the initial search
criteria, the analysed data inherits the works cited by these initial units.
The co-existence of all these networks enables a temporal analysis of
scientific collaboration (science mapping with social networks), citation
networks (cognitive networks) and the contextual development of a
selected topic.
2.3. Network analysis with blockmodeling and the main citation path
Topic research was further extended with several network analysis
methods. To represent the contextual aspect of the CEE-related IB
publications through time, we reorganised the data into 2-mode net-
work of publications and keywords. Rows in this network represent
papers while columns represent words. The paper and the words are
connected when the word appears in the title or among the keywords of
the paper. To simplify the analysis, the papers were stacked into five
temporal intervals by publication year (1966–1995, 1996–2000,
2001–2005, 2006–2010, 2011–2016). Regarding the words, for each of
these intervals only the most common 100 words are used in this net-
work.
To obtain the structure within the analysed network (community
detection method), we applied the blockmodeling method for 2-mode
networks (Doreian, Batagelj, & Ferligoj, 2005) as implemented in Pajek
(de Nooy, Mrvar, & Batagelj, 2018). The method (based on structural
equivalence) is used to reduce a large and incoherent network to a
smaller comprehensible structure that can be more readily interpreted
(Batagelj, Mrvar, Ferligoj, & Doreian, 2004). The blockmodeling result
(i.e. the 10 identified clusters of topics) is then used to generate a
network of topic groups. Fig. 2 (the results section) displays the net-
work of the most frequently used word groups over time (the shading in
the matrix cells shows the word frequency) ordered into clusters. While
some groups of words (clusters) appear in several time periods, other
groups of words are only concentrated in a selected time period. Fig. 3
highlights the relations among the ten identified topic groups. A rela-
tion between two groups shows the co-occurrence of inherited words in
two or more time periods. A stronger connection between groups thus
means the words were popular in the same period, while a weaker one
means they appeared in different time periods. Since the number of
(footnote continued)
(business and management) OR (business and economies)). All codes are
available upon request.
5
Including separate lemmatised search for Central Europe, Eastern Europe,
South-East Europe and the list of individual CEE countries mentioned in
Footnote 1. Search code is available from the editors upon request.
 A. Jaklič, et al.

Table 1
Most frequently used words in CEE-IB research over time – word frequency based on blockmodeling analysis.
1960s, 1970s, 1989– 1995– 2003– 2010–
1980s

Research gap Transition focus period Theory-testing period “Institutions matter” Eclectic period

trade, east, western

1918–1938, account, background, concern, demand,
establish, involve, exports, industrial, opportunity, period,
private, relation, foreign, capital, political
Government, transformation, world, region, follow, condition, major, production, foreign,
Compare, consider, control, cost, effect, evidence, view,
examine, face, unit, union, require, specific, suggest, theory,
difference, function, potential, relationship,

3
Transition, structure, investment, problem, central
Form, group, European union
Design, empirical, finding,
public, order, institution
Apply, conduct, current, importance, implementation,
purpose, improve, innovation, quality, relate,
significant
Knowledge, manager, method, survey, aim, finding, order, way
Identity, practice, area, global, resource, practice
Article, case, context, different, level, informal, organisation, performance, model, experience, future, impact
Business, base, analysis, approach, economy, paper, use, research, result, study, European, international, growth, important, environment, enterprise, Europe, development, country, company, change, process, factor, firm, focus, growth,
increase, industry, influence information, main, issue, market, new, sector, service, state, strategy, study, technology, time, value, work

Source: Own analysis based on the blockmodeling presented in Fig. 2. Bolded words were used more frequently in CEE-related research. Underlined words are the most used words in the group of words (cluster) that were
most popular in the selected period.
Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
A. Jaklič, et al.
words in clusters differs, the presented strengths of ties were normalised
by the maximum tie weight. The blockmodeling information is further
summarised in Table 1, which presents the most frequently used words
over periods and places them in the context of important historical
regional events. It demonstrates which words dominated in certain
periods, and which were spread across the periods more consistently.
All of these results served the periodisation.
Finally, we present selected insights from citation analysis. We ex-
plored the citation of CEE-related publications within the group of these
publications and identified the main citation path. We identify the most
influential works using the method of the main path (Hummon &
Doreian, 1989), a mathematical tool that identifies the major paths in a
citation network and the algorithms for community detection as sug-
gested by Batagelj (2003). We only consider the largest inter-connected
group which encompasses 175 publications and look for the main ci-
tation paths.6 The search path count method (PCM) was applied within
the group of CEE-related publications (Batagelj, Doreian, Ferligoj, &
Kejzar, 2014) to identify the main paths over time. We detected the
most influential works in the field and the main routes of citation
(Fig. 4).
3. Results of the bibliometric analysis and discussion
The bibliometric analysis of different networks provided a mass of
material (available for further detailed analysis of authors, journals or
citations), which we primarily used to identify trends and topics in CEE-
related research in IB, namely, the core focus of our analysis.
3.1. Trends in CEE-related research
The analysed data consisted of 84,241 works related to international
business and management. The total number of IB works and works
cited by these works was 1,635,131. In total, the number of IB articles
related to CEE published between 1966 (first observed unit) and 2016 is
4519 units, representing 5.6% of the entire body of IB literature. The
first CEE-related articles date back to the 1960s,7 the second wave came
at the end of the 1970s and the third in the mid-1980s (Fig. 1). The
continuous flow of publications increased after the 1990s, following the
fall of the Berlin Wall, placing the CEE region on the map. In 1999, CEE-
IB-related articles represented 3.7% of all articles in the field captured
by WOS. In 2005, the share dropped to 2.8% and rose again to 5.6% in
2009. Rapid growth started in 2007 (growth of 78% over the previous
year). In the 2008–2010 period, WOS contains about 160 articles per
year. From 2011, the annual number of CEE-related articles exceeded
400 to reach a peak of 824 articles in 2016, the last year of our ob-
servation.8 The increase is not only seen in absolute terms, but the
volume also improved relatively by reaching 7.9% of total articles in
2015 (the maximum so far) and retained a 7.7% share in 2016.
These results reveal much more dynamic development than the
narrower coverage of top IB and international management journals
relied on by Meyer and Peng in 2005. In their approach, ‘the CEE-IB
field’ appears to have been quite stable with respect to CEE-related
articles in the last three decades. The annual average number in the top
13 journals was 11.5 (1986–2004 period), with a tiny increase to ap-
proximately 12 CEE-related articles per year in the period between
2005 and 2017 (after EU enlargement). IB-oriented journals generally
paid more attention to CEE than international management journals,
6 environment. This synthesis may not only help understand the past, but
Other interrelated groups are significantly smaller and isolated so extending
the sets of articles to 10 provides a more interesting result.
7
The Czech journal “Politicka ekonomie” published the first article related to
CEE and IB in 1966 and the next in 1967 presented the differences in IB be-
tween planned and capitalist systems.
8
The results of the search query including the list of the most cited articles,
and cross-citation are available upon request.
4
Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
although these topics started to be discussed there (Fig. 4). The fre-
quency in so-called Western Europe-based journals is higher than in
North America-based journals, although after 2006 as many as five JIBS
Decade Awards were given to CEE-related articles. Such articles in se-
lected top journals were often (especially in 2016) published in special
issues of leading journals. Many CEE-oriented journals, such as Journal
of East European Management Studies, Eastern European Economics, or
Post-Communist Economies or which are listed in the SSCI and entered
WOS in recent decades are, however, not among the top IB and man-
agement journals and would therefore be left out of Meyer and Peng's
(2005) approach. Our contribution therefore complements their find-
ings with a more thorough quantitative review.
3.2. Topics, periods and drivers of CEE-related research
As described in Section 2.3., a blockmodeling procedure identified
10 clusters of words reflecting which words appeared most frequently
in papers together in the same period of time. Fig. 2 highlights 10
groups of words and their use over time (4 on the first line, 5 on the
second line and 1 on the third line). Periods are marked on the right
side of the ribbon for each line. Some word groups appear in several
time periods (e.g. the bottom cluster in Fig. 2), others are concentrated
only in a selected time period (e.g. the right-upper corner for words that
only appear in 2011–2016). The word ‘business’ – placed on the left
side of the bottom ribbon, which indicates a group of words used
throughout the whole period – is thus intensively used all the time, as
illustrated by the black cells in all time periods. The frequency of the
words ‘economy’, ‘country’ or ‘state’ is, for example, decreasing in time
(cells become less shaded over time), while the word ‘case’ is more
intensive after 1995 (more shaded over time), indicating the trend that
more general country studies in the region were gradually being com-
plemented by a variety of more detailed case studies. Similarly, we can
trace less use of ‘market’ and greater use of ‘management’ or stable use
of the word ‘enterprise’. ‘Quality’ and ‘innovation’, on the other hand,
appear as the most popular words only after 2010, and the word ‘pri-
vate’ only up to 1995.
Fig. 3 further illustrates the connections between the groups of
words, i.e. the network of ten identified topic clusters. It helps under-
stand the centrality and connectivity of topics over time. The largest
group of words (placed on the bottom line of Fig. 2) is very central and
connected to all the other groups. This is also true for the group of
words with representatives ‘global’, ‘manager’, ‘knowledge’ or the
group with representatives ‘different’, ‘impact’, ‘performance’. Rather
than naming each of the 10 identified groups individually, Table 1
summarises bibliometric information in the last five decades and puts it
in the context of important historical events in the region.
Taking a bird's eye view of this literature and bibliographic analysis,
breaking it down into phases, and exploring the triggers and factors
influencing the CEE-related publications in IB gave us new insights
concerning the evolution of CEE-related research. Looking at this pro-
cess as a transformation, Table 2 identifies phases, topics (which may
overlap) during the decades under study and the drivers affecting the
dynamics of CEE-related publications in IB research. CEE-related re-
search accelerated sequentially in terms of topics, methods and activ-
ities, but varied across the region also with regard to the inter-
nationalisation of countries, which started to converge only after EU
enlargement. Research evolved from broader, more macro and country-
level approaches to more complex and micro, enterprise-level topics
(Fig. 2 and Table 1), based on incentives from the changing business
also the challenges and gaps the IB field in CEE is likely to face re-
garding future research.
3.2.1. Pre-transition socialist period
During the pre-transition stage of CEE countries, IB issues were not
important from either a research or practical perspective. Despite some
A. Jaklič, et al. Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Fig. 1. The dynamics of publications on CEE in the areas of international business, management and economics (absolute number and as a share of the total volume)
Source: Our search in WOS

Fig. 2. Two-mode network blockmodel: Most frequently used words over time clustered in 10 groups of words
Note: The shading in the cells shows the frequency of the words. Groups of words are divided by blue vertical lines.
Source: Our analysis. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

specificities, most communist economies in the region were following
relatively autarkic development policies. Foreign trade was very lim-
ited. For example, in Poland imports amounted to barely USD 10.8
billon and exports to USD 11.5 billion in 1985.9 Most trade was per-
formed by a limited number of strictly controlled Foreign Trade Orga-
nisations (FTOs) and the Soviet Union remained Poland's biggest
trading partner until 1989 (e.g. in 1985 the USSR accounted for 28% of
its exports and 34% of its imports).10 The only exception, an outlier,
9
Central Statistical Office. Yearbook of Foreign Trade Statistics of Poland 2017,
stat.gov.pl, 2017, p. 43
was Yugoslavia which introduced a quasi-market oriented reform in
1965 and opened its market to joint ventures (JV) with foreign capital
in 1967.11 Some CEE countries also started to experiment with FDI, but
only under very strict regulations that limited entry forms to JVs or
small firms, and only a few specific local companies were allowed to
invest abroad. At the enterprise level (with highly-controlled
10
Ibid.
11
The law allowed JVs but not the ownership of foreign partners. They only
had the right to co-manage the joint company (Sukijasević, 1971; Sukijasović,
1967).

5
A. Jaklič, et al.
Fig. 3. Network of word groups (ties between groups identified by blockmodeling)
Note: Each dot indicates one cluster of words (that co-existed in the papers during the same period). The strength of the ties indicates a connection between the
groups as some groups of words may be present in more than one time period.
Source: Own analysis.
management structures and disabled pre-socialist international en-
trepreneurship), there was neither accumulated knowledge nor ex-
perience concerning how to operate in international markets, hence IB
research in the former communist economies was limited to economic
analysis of trade flows (Nemschak, 1976; Watts, 1978), differences
between planned and capitalist economies, or idiosyncratic (context-
specific) solutions adopted in particular countries like specific forms of
JV (Sukijasević, 1971; Sukijasović, 1967), ‘multinationals from the
second world’ or ‘red multinationals’ (McMillan, 1987; Hamilton, 1986,
Artisien, McMillan, Carl, & Rojec, 1992). A special form of outward FDI,
system escape investment, driven by the desire to avoid the rigidities of
the socialist system and to gain market freedom and access to strategic
partners in western markets, was also evaluated (later described in
Svetličič, Rojec, & Lebar, 1994, Svetličič, 1996, Jaklič & Svetličič, 2001,
2003). IB did not exist as a research area and IB knowledge was also not
available in higher education curriculums, but very fragmented within
economics programmes.
3.2.2. Transition focus period
The transformation of political, economic and social systems in CEE
during the 1990s was one of the greatest jolts in the second half of the
twentieth century. Russian perestroika, democratic political elections in
Poland in 1989, and the fall of the Berlin Wall started a domino effect of
systemic changes in CEE countries. The intended transition strategies in
certain CEE countries coexisted with emerging limits imposed by their
particular external political and economic conditions and historical
contingencies. Hence, most of these countries followed their own
transformation paths (Stark & Bruszt, 1998) that still have some fea-
tures in common. The new institutional norms and rules were not
clearly defined and coexisted with the old and informal ones. Waves of
privatisation and the surge of entrepreneurship created a fluid sea of
6
Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
new plentiful, changeable and hybrid business forms (state-owned
firms, commercialised state-owned firms, state-owned firms with for-
eign and local investors, worker-owned enterprises, foreign SMEs and
MNCs, JVs, private firms etc.). The swift, experimental and systemic
nature of these changes made them difficult to control, regulate or
predict the results (Ciszewska-Mlinarič, Obloj, & Wąsowska, 2018;
Pickles & Smith, 2005). The collapse of trade within CEE, imbalances,
hyperinflation, crushing debt levels, and the drop in industrial activities
in many of these economies dictated the political and economic prio-
rities (Blanchard, 1997). All of these transition challenges captured the
attention of researchers – economists and management specialists –
studying the unique context and processes of transition. Apart from a
few studies that explored East–West cooperation, the financial perfor-
mance, policies and operations of Western subsidiaries of former so-
cialist multinationals (King, Hill, & Cornforth, 1995), there was limited
interest in studying CEE-IB issues and publishing related papers.12
Economics dominated and the focus on ‘exports’, ‘capital account’
and ‘private’. It is very visible in how the content evolved in papers
published in a scholarly journal that focuses on CEE transformation and
development, namely, Communist Economies.13 The themes included
12
In the WoS dataset, there are 94 CEE-related papers in the period from
1991 to 1996, yet most are oriented to changes in economic policies and
varieties of transformation.
13
Probably the first refereed journal (established in 1989) focused on tran-
sition in CEE whose aim is ‘to advance our understanding of the economic in-
stitutions, policies and performance of the ex-communist countries focuses primarily
on European post-communist economies’. It changed its title to Communist
Economies and Economic Transformation (1991–1998), and later to Post-
Communist Economies (1999 - current). Management-oriented journals such as
Baltic Journal of Management (JBM), Journal of East European Management
A. Jaklič, et al. Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Table 2
Stages and factors influencing the dynamics of CEE-related publications in IB research.
Period Key drivers Key topics

1. Pre-transition socialist stage (until fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989)

Late 1960s, 1970s, 1980s Socialist regime Red multinationals, MNC from the Second World, Special forms of JV
Research gaps Trade concentrated mainly within COMECON East-West trade, differences between planned and capitalist system
Trade limited to foreign trade organisations CIS trade
2. Transition period
1989– Market oriented reforms Context diversity of CEE - different history, institutional setting and
Transition focus Democratisation chosen transformational path
Privatisation State-owned enterprises
Privatisation and private firms' development
Institution building
Inward FDI
1995– Restructuring and growth Micro contingencies (antecedents, processes, activities)
Theory-testing period EU accession
Rising popularity of IB studies led by Western researchers – resource limitation (cognitive, financial, managerial, …)
Increased competition – activities (entrepreneurship explosion; transformation and adaptation
of existing firms)
– replicating Investment development path, Uppsala model
– Western MNCs' entry in different forms (export, JVs, greenfield)
– First efforts start to evaluate outward internationalisation (ACE
project)
2004– Stabilisation of transition efforts MNCs subsidiaries' (indirect investment) established operations in CEE
“Institutions matter” period End of privatisation programmes (in most of CEE) countries
EU enlargement Modest outbound investment started (mainly intra-regional)
Global economic crises Determinants (motives, effects) of foreign entry modes, FDI, exports
Improved data availability and intensification of survey Knowledge, technology spillovers and knowledge transfer
research Infant CEEs' MNCs start their OFDI
Institutional voids, the role of institutions
Relationships and networks
Values and behaviour of managers and consumers
3. Eclectic period
2010 - Global economic crises, global trends Shift to crises and restructuring, competitiveness, innovation
Using the context richness of CEE Openness to the East and West (in terms of research topics Business and governments, institutional support for internationalisation,
and co-authorships) FDI policies
Internationalisation drive of local SMEs Diversification of topics and methods, from more holistic to more
China, 16 + 1 initiative specialised research
Digitalisation, E-commerce, AI International entrepreneurship, knowledge management,
Outbound internationalisation gets wider grounds
The role of cultural factors

Source: Own analysis.

reform policies, institutional change and economic performance at the
micro-, mezzo- and macro-economic levels; cross-country comparative
analysis and international economic relations.14 Our analysis of papers
appearing in 1989–1995 issues reveals a wide scope of the issues ana-
lysed and discussed in relation to the transition of CEE countries. Fiscal
reforms, agrarian reforms, property rights, privatisation of state-owned
firms and development of the private sector were prominent. Privati-
sation, reforms and transformation were the leading themes of most
articles during the initial three volumes. Published in 1992 (Hunya,
1992), the first article related to the international dimension of trans-
formation dealt with FDI and privatisation in CEE. It was followed by a
paper by Svetlicic and Rojec (1994) on the impact of FDI on Slovenia's
economic transformation and CEEs (1994). Since then, several papers
analysing FDI in CEE have appeared, especially for Hungary (in 1993
and 1994), Poland (in 1994 and 1997) and Bulgaria (1997). They
analysed different entry strategies (acquisitions vs JVs), the scale and
impact of FDI upon transformation, its performance and operations
(Kolasa, 2008). However, most papers dealt with issues related to the
reforms, state-owned firm restructuring, development of the private
sector, and a comparison of the transition paths of CEE countries. At the
end of this period, papers started to address issues concerned with CEE
(footnote continued)
Studies (JEEMS) or Journal of East West Business were established later. The
former two became SSCI listed (in WOS) in 2008 and 2012.
14
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=
aimsScope&journalCode=cpce20, accessed on 24 March 2018.
countries' trade relations with the EU and the challenge of harmonising
the rules and regulations.
3.2.3. Theory testing period
The transition period was relatively long and saw very diverse paths
of development and patterns of internationalisation being pursued by
countries. Some CEE economies (with an import-substitution record)
started with intensive export promotion and intensive outward inter-
nationalisation (e.g. Slovenia, Estonia) already in the 1990s (Svetličič,
1996, Jaklič & Svetličič, 2003, Svetličič & Rojec, 2003), others (e.g.
Poland or Hungary) became an FDI destination, initiated exports
(mostly thanks to subsidiaries of MNCs producing intermediary pro-
ducts), and started outward FDI only after 2004. These different evo-
lutionary paths allowed researchers to test and refine established IB
theories and to later study the micro-contingencies (antecedents, pro-
cesses, activities) of international investment. As Meyer and Peng noted
(2005), researchers started to use the CEE region as a new and un-
conventional context to primarily study foreign investors' entry strate-
gies and subsidiaries' operations (Hooley, Cox, Shipley, Fahy, Beracs, &
Kolos, 1996, Brouthers & Bamossy, 1997; Lyles & Salk, 1996; Peng &
Heath, 1996; Steemsma & Lyles 2000; Fahy, Hooley, Cox, Beracs,
Fonfoara, & Snoj, 2000; Uhlenbruck & DeCastro, 2000, Meyer, 2001).
Scholars tested the OLI, resource-based and Upsalla models (Brouthers,
Brouthers, & Werner, 2001; Johanson & Johanson, 2006; Meyer &
Gelbuda, 2006; Nakos & Brouthers, 2002). Other issues that grabbed
researchers' attention due to the transition character of CEE countries
related to transaction costs (Meyer and Peng, 2005) organisational
performance (Danis & Parkhe, 2002), governance structures and

7
A. Jaklič, et al.
mandates (Engelhard & Nägele, 2003; Uhlenbruck, 2004, Manea &
Pearce, 2006).
During this and subsequent periods, most publications related to IB
issues in CEE in the peer-reviewed journals are written by scholars from
Western business schools. The reasons are quite simple. Scholars from
CEE countries had limited data on FDI (confidentiality, short timeseries,
no access to firm-level data), no incentives to publish internationally15
and modest skills in crafting scholarly articles that fit within the tem-
plates of western journals. Their ability to describe the differences and
specifics of CEE contexts beyond “story telling” and presenting case
evidence was limited. All of these limitations still exist today (albeit
they are diminishing).16 Scholars from Western business schools were,
in contrast, highly motivated to test the validity of the Western theo-
retical models. Replications and extensions helped them develop more
general theories – theories that are particularly applicable outside the
Western context within which they were originally developed. The ar-
ticle content revealed that most looked at traditional inward-FDI issues
(like motives, location choices, modes of entry) and rarely at broader
context issues of the business environment which are more assumed
than explored and (uncritically) projected throughout CEE. Outward
FDI and outward internationalisation went with almost no considera-
tion.
3.2.4. “Institutions matter” period
The EU's eastern enlargement in 2004 encouraged research.
Empirical studies are on the rise, along with available timeseries and
greater survey research. Meyer and Peng's (2005) first-time review of
research streams in CEE in top journals and proposed research agendas
for the future. Still, papers focusing exclusively on IB issues were not
very common and locally produced research rarely penetrated WOS
(Ozretic-Dosen, Skare & Krupka, 2007) unless scholars were working at
Western universities (Dikova, 2009). Research on foreign entry strate-
gies started to emerge. The issue of CEE firms' internationalisation saw
almost no coverage until Bojnec and Xavier's (2004) article on export
performance. The first paper to focus directly on CEE firms' interna-
tional competitiveness was only published in 2007, discussing the im-
pact of EU accession on the export competitiveness of the Estonian
food-processing industry (Toming, 2007). The issue of outward FDI
from CEE countries – although explored within CEE since 1996
(Svetličič, 1996) – appears in WOS only in 2010 (Rugraff, 2010).
Meyer and Peng's (2005) award-winning paper emphasises context
as a theory-building element by focusing attention on institutions as an
element that distinguished the environment in CEE countries from de-
veloped economies and helped limit misinterpreting data from different
CEE locations (Meyer & Peng, 2016; 4). It has been a strong incentive
for further research (also see the main citation path in Section 3.3),
especially regarding the institutional framework of CEE economies,
underdeveloped in all aspects: normative, regulatory and cognitive
(Scott, 1995; Manolova, Eunni & Gyoshev, 2008, Bruton & Ahlstrom,
2010, Bruton, Ahlstrom & Li, 2010, Shinkle & Kriauciunas, 2010,
Shinkle & Kriauciunas, 2012, Obloj, Obloj, & Pratt, 2010). Many of the
changes implemented aimed at incremental adaptation to the EU's
15
Only recently have universities in the CEE region introduced a system
whereby publishing in international journals is a precondition for promotions.
16
All these limitations exist today (although they are diminishing). One can
trace them by looking at the Scimago rankings of publications for particular
years for the business and international management category. In 1996 (the
first year with full data), scholars from CEE countries published 124 articles,
while the number for Germany was 165, the UK – 263, and the USA – 263. In
2000, CEE scholars published 276 articles, while German – 288, UK – 449, and
US – 1324. In 2005, scholars from CEE countries published 286 papers (and the
number of represented countries grew from 13 in 1996 to 20 in 2005), while
German scholars published 397, UK – 683, and US scholars – 2583 papers.
(http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?category=1403&area=1400&
region=Eastern%20Europe).
8
Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
regulations and institutions, but some directives demanded by EU ac-
cession were substantial, especially in the areas of law, taxes, audits,
infrastructure, education and investment (Bukowski, Gadowska, &
Polak, 2014). Hence, the diversity of the transition and development
paths taken coexisted with growing commonalities of the institutional
framework. Institutions played a major role in changing the environ-
ment of firms and within-firms. As Meyer and Peng (2016; 11) observed
later in their retrospective paper based on research on CEE and emer-
ging economies: ‘Perhaps the most important contribution of CEE research
to management scholarship was the fundamental insight that institutions are
essential for the effective functioning of a market economy, and in con-
sequence for the strategies and operations of firms... Previously, manage-
ment scholars had often taken for granted the existence of clearly defined
rules of the game.’ The agency view of economic actors (as guided by
rationality and self-interest, which, through the mediating institution of
the market, leads to efficient outcomes for all economic actors) was
complemented by the concept of the embeddedness of institutions,
emphasising the social context of the economic transaction. What is
specific to the role of institutions in CEE compared with developed
economies is the relative instability of the formal institutions and the
interplay with informal institutions (Kunčič & Jaklič, 2014).
3.2.5. Eclectic period
The last period has two distinct characteristics: rapid growth of
publications in economics, management and IB focused on CEE (see
Fig. 1), and their huge diversity. The increase in the quantity of IB re-
search by local scholars was most probably stimulated by the greater
mobility of researchers across the region, higher number of PhD stu-
dents, and their growing participation in international conferences,
especially the European Academy of International Business (EIBA) and
the Academy of International Business (AIB). Researchers obtained a
special forum for exchanging their ideas, empowering research capa-
cities and diffusing knowledge also within the AIB CEE Chapter estab-
lished in 2013. In the processes of gaining international accreditations,
CEE universities and IB schools increased their international exposure
and collaboration. CEE countries in this period also expanded the share
of open-access publications compared to the rest of the EU (SRIP report,
2018, 173) and became aware that a lower level of internationalisation
influences scientific excellence, leading to lower scores in highly cited
scientific publications.
In a way, scholars were following the changes in business conditions
and practices in CEE. Most transition reforms were completed: the
privatisation of state-owned assets, deregulation and opening of the
market to multiple providers, development of legal codes, governance
structures and the separation of regulatory authority from the executive
branch, along with limitation of executive political influence on reg-
ulatory practices. Following Kim, Kim, Kim, and Hoskisson (2010), we
may refer to this stage as a period of harmonisation and institutional
convergence.
The economic development of CEE countries and accession to the
EU resulted in increased exports, diversification of trade and an in-
vestment pattern towards new centres of economic growth (BRICS, or
Asia generally) and outward FDI (Gorynia, Trąpczyński, Nowak, &
Wolniak, 2015; Tkalec & Svetličič, 2014). The CEE economies became
very international (Rado, 2018) as they jointly export over 64% of their
total GDP and this ratio has been increasing since the crisis of 2008 (in
the “old” EU-15 countries this ratio is 42%). Infant CEE MNEs were
born, with strong domestic policy support in some CEE states (Hungary,
Poland), along with the rising international orientation and mobility of
SMEs in CEE (Svetličič, Jaklič & Burger, 2007, Jansson & Sandberg,
2008; Wąsowska, Obloj, & Ciszewska-Mlinarič, 2016, Stoian, Rialp,
Rialp, & Jarvis, 2016). Still, despite the rapid growth of outward FDI, all
CEE countries have a negative net international investment position,
i.e. they receive more investments than they make (Rado, 2018).
Institutional convergence, economic development and the growing
participation of CEE researchers in international conferences helped to
A. Jaklič, et al.
merge research in CEE into the broader agenda of emerging-economy
research, and the phenomena of interest have become quite typical. The
three main streams of research centred around the following themes.
The biggest focuses were on the internationalisation of companies from
CEE countries (Jansson & Sandberg, 2008; Musteen, Francis, & Datta,
2010; Prats, Sosna, & Sysko-Romanczuk, 2015; Stoian et al., 2016;
Vissak & Masso, 2015) and related motives, entry modes, processes, the
impact of the imprint of communism (SOE firms, nationalism, shortages
of knowledge and resources etc.), subsidiary development and specific
strategies (Filatotchev, Stephan & Jindra, 2008, Trąpczyński &
Banalieva, 2016, Burger, Björn, Philipp, & Rojec, 2017). The rise of
infant MNCs from CEE (and in emerging economies generally) led to a
rich and interesting debate on whether a new theory was needed to
explain the internationalisation of companies from relatively under-
developed, emerging economies that do not possess significant owner-
ship advantages like brands, advanced products, knowledge and tech-
nologies, which traditional theories take for granted as a must-have. A
consensus has not been reached. However, the most persuasive argu-
ments are offered by scholars arguing that emerging markets' MNCs can
be successfully analysed within the framework of existing theories, but
they still offer unique opportunities to refine and extend them, thereby
making the traditional theories more comprehensive and dynamic
(Ramamurti, 2012; Verbeke & Kano, 2015; Ramamurti & Hillemann,
2018).
The second stream of research focuses on testing particular elements
of established theories and concepts within the CEE context, such as the
role of networks (Musteen et al., 2010; Nowiński & Rialp, 2016), ex-
ploitation vs exploration (Shirokova, Vega & Sokolova, 2013), en-
trepreneurial orientation, OLI or the Upsalla model (de Jong, van Dut,
Björn, & Philipp, 2015), and MNCs' impact and operations (Hagemejer
& Tyrowicz, 2012; Meyer & Su 2015). This stream covers a very wide
range of topics and issues, and CEE diversity (in terms of business en-
vironment, institutions, governance structures, community logic, busi-
ness and government relations, pace of convergence in growth and
development) still makes them attractive ground for theory testing,
refining and augmenting.
The third area includes comparative studies, so far never a parti-
cularly strong advantage in CEE-related IB research (Bruton, Lau &
Obloj, 2014). The incentive for comparative studies has come from the
increased (business and research) intra-regional cooperation, but also
from EU integration and funding for the purpose of policymaking and
monitoring. Another external incentive for the “regional revival” comes
from the Chinese 16 + 1 initiative that strengthened diplomatic, eco-
nomic and academic relations.17 Yet, CEE trade and investments re-
mained regionally centred in Europe, and bilateral trade and invest-
ment relations between CEE countries and China unbalanced. All of this
intensified research in newly established institutions (formal and in-
formal institutions and their interactions), but also state, business and
individual responses to the changed business environment and con-
textualisation attempts.
3.3. Impact of CEE-related research on IB and main path analysis
Finally, our aim was to evaluate the impact of CEE-related research
and identify the most influential CEE-related works; more precisely,
how influential these works were within the field. Our key question was
how often were CEE-related articles in IB cited by CEE-related articles
in IB.18 The citation network from WOS and search path count method
17
An agreement between China and 16 CEE countries established in 2012.
Since 16 + 1 started before the Belt and Road initiative, it may be seen as an
experimental platform bringing the experience for rising connectivity within
the broader platform (for the Chinese and European sides).
18
For the purpose of this article, we only present this segment of citation
analysis, however the dataset also enables a number of other perspectives (for
9
Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
enabled us to detect the main paths of citation over time. The most
influential works in the field are located on the 10 main routes (Fig. 4).
As described in the methodology section, we concentrated on the most
influential work and left all other smaller or isolated communities out
of our focus.
According to WOS data, we can attribute the historical roots to the
works of Peng and Shekshnia (2001) and Filatotchev, Buck, and Zhukov
(2000). Peng's work on institutional transitions and strategic choices
(Peng, 2003) is the first important node, which further develops into
four new routes. The main citation path started in management journals
(Academy of Management Executive, Academy of Management
Journal, Academy of Management Review), but mainly proceeded in
international business journals (especially Journal of International
Business Studies). Two routes were further directed by Klaus Meyer
whose works can be identified not only as the most influential, but also
the most integrative on the citation path of CEE-related articles. Meyer
and Peng (2005) significantly influenced the flow of knowledge on
institutions and international business in CEE, resumed it again in 2008
Gelbuda et al., 2008) and 2009 (Meyer, Estrin, Bhaumik, & Peng,
2009). The latest triggered several new routes (Fig. 4) that multiply
after 2012. The rapid dynamics of new publications since 2010 (Fig. 1)
will most likely stimulate new routes in the future. CEE-based scholars
and CEE-specialised journals entered the main citation path only in
2015 (Gorynia et al., 2015). Meyer connected the main routes (re-
routed them with co-authors) by expanding the CEE perspective to
emerging market research and by examining selected strategic di-
lemmas in IB (Estrin, Baghdasaryan, & Meyer, 2009; Santangelo &
Meyer, 2011).
One route developed into research of international entrepreneur-
ship, internationalisation of SMEs, and growth of firms in transition
environments (Danis, Chiaburu, & Lyles, 2010; Jansson & Sandberg,
2008; Stoian et al., 2016), especially exploring the role of networks
(Danis, De Clercq, & Petricevic, 2011; Kiss, Danis, & Cavusgil, 2012).
4. Discussion
Our analysis of IB and management research trends in CEE offers
three tentative findings. First, historically most research was devoted to
theory-testing, not theory-building. Since the body of this research was
conducted by researchers trained at Western schools, they were chiefly
interested in testing the robustness of IB theories like the OLI paradigm,
or the Upsalla models, and the operations of Western MNCs in the new
conditions. Modest theoretical refinements and developments could be
seen in the search for the distinctiveness of the behaviour of (both
foreign MNCs and local) firms in CEE in different respects, like
knowledge flows (Lyles & Salk, 1996), specificities of their inter-
nationalisation patterns, such as ‘inversed investment development
path’ (Svetličič, 1996, 2008), leapfrogging by springboards (Jaklič &
Svetličič, 2003), the paths taken by ‘hidden champions’ (McKiernan &
Purg, 2013) and ‘entrepreneurial icebreakers’ (Prats et al., 2015). Ex-
ploring internationalisation in CEE revealed some interesting peculia-
rities in international operations and the decision-making process
(apart from prescriptive models) like using simultaneous entry modes
or product and market diversification from scratch, the exchange be-
tween effectuation logic in internationalisation strategy and the speed
of internationalisation (Gorynia et al., 2015, Vissak & Masso, 2015,
Dikova, Jaklič, Burger & Kunčič, 2016, Wąsowska et al., 2016). The
word ‘different’ is among the most used words in CEE research since
1995, seeing even greater use since 2010. None of these (mainly em-
pirical) efforts convincingly showed that MNCs' operations in CEE or
(footnote continued)
example which articles were cited by CEE-related articles, how often were CEE-
related articled cited in general and by non-CEE-related articles, the relation
with potential other topics (such as emerging markets) or regions…).
A. Jaklič, et al.
Fig. 4. Main citation path (path count method)
Source: Own analysis.
the internationalisation of firms from CEE are really different from that
in other transition economies, or as suggested by general theories. A
more positive example is probably the deeper understanding of in-
stitutional instability and informal institutions' impact upon organisa-
tions' behaviour stands out as an extension of theoretical thinking with
clear practical relevance.
Second, there is a very limited number (if any) of new concepts or
ideas born out of CEE studies. Due to the wide utilisation and testing of
macro-, mezzo- and firm-level concepts existing in traditional theories,
most CEE studies were either a replication or extension of former stu-
dies performed in mature Western economies. Not one of the relatively
new concepts in IB or general management theories like ‘born global’,
‘infant multinationals’, ‘good enough products’, ‘strategic en-
trepreneurship’, ‘hidden champions’ or ‘blue ocean strategy’ is an out-
come of studies and research in CEE, although most of these concepts
have also been tested in the region. Peculiarities identified in inter-
nationalisation strategies were not explored in detail or used to develop
new models.
Third, related to the above, most research in CEE entailed single-
country studies based on limited databases and short timeseries data
(FDI for instance). The limited scope and reliability of data (e.g. only a
few cases of outward FDI) and extensive use of case studies made
theoretical generalisations and research validity difficult because it is
hard to judge the importance of statistical significance and impact of
particular variables in a single-country setting. Findings are naturally
limited to a certain history, institutional environment and settings. The
10
Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
specifics identified in CEE internationalisation were rarely (re)tested
within the region, leaving dimensions of the context underexplored.
In essence, research in the CEE region drew attention to special
features, but failed to develop something new and CEE's potential to
reshape the research focus of IB did not materialise. Neither researchers
working in developed countries nor local researchers have been curious
and ambitious enough to exploit the CEE transition as an opportunity to
move IB research to the next level: to make it more contextualised,
systemic in its understanding of changes brought by the novel nexus of
technological, political, social and economic developments, and con-
tent-rich. At the moment, it seems left stuck in the middle – with many
specific research studies and few generalisations. Hence, we need to
look for important issues to explore what will give IB studies in CEE and
generally fresh momentum (Delios, 2016).
5. Conclusions – future challenges and opportunities for CEE-
based research
Theory validation and testing, part of the initial thrust, has lost
momentum and the theory-building stage is awaiting. CEE research
diversified and replication studies with respect to “old” theories bring
limited added value. If you have an old bottle, new wine will fit inside,
but then you will never find interesting differences. Hence, how can
CEE add to big questions and the ‘renaissance in IB research’ (Buckley,
Doh & Beniche, 2017)? Recently emerged big challenges like instability,
new important players around the region or rising protectionism seem
A. Jaklič, et al.
constant in CEE. We tentatively propose to focus future CEE-IB research
in such a way that leverages the accumulated knowledge gathered to
date with new challenges that hold theoretical and practical sig-
nificance.
The unexploited opportunities described in the previous section
indicate different research approaches are needed. The challenge of how
to do and how to communicate future CEE-IB research seems even
tougher than what to explore. We propose strengthening four (thus far
underused) approaches – comparative studies, process research, mul-
tilevel (emphasising micro data) and more interdisciplinary (also bib-
liometric) research – in order to exploit the context richness and obtain
insights into differences and similarities across CEE and EM, together
with the determinants of the failure/success of MNEs in CEE and EMs.
5.1. Similarities and differences of CEE countries as a research challenge
Too often CEE has been treated as almost a uniform bloc of post-
communist countries. Despite some similarities (like a former commu-
nist regime or European history of the developed world), these coun-
tries had distinct characteristics (even particular communist models)
and many political, social and economic differences. Their unique his-
tory, size and resources made them take sometimes radically different
transition paths (Jaklič et al., 2018). A better understanding of how
these differences impact entrepreneurial and internationalisation
choices or how they influence orchestration and network capacities
requires a comparative process research and multilevel research by
placing much greater weight upon the context of IB research, as re-
cently advocated by Delios (2016, pp. 394–395). Contextualising IB
research (Teagarden, Von Glinow, & Mellahi, 2018) and encouraging
high-quality indigenous research (Tsui, 2004) can speed up knowledge
creation.
Most CEE states now share several EU institutions, yet the diver-
gence in institutional development (in terms of the business environ-
ment, governance structures, state control of the economy and the pace
of convergence in development) within the region remains, as does the
challenge of identifying critical variations where we cannot generalise
among CEE and beyond emerging economies (Meyer & Peng, 2016).
The institutional view in CEE so far relies more on “rules and resources”
and North's view, and less on the structural dynamic process and in-
teraction of actors and structure (Giddens, 1986), especially in the IB
decision-making process, and international entrepreneurship that in-
deed enhanced the bottom-up transition of institutions in CEE. Process
research and comparative studies testing boundary conditions, new
moderators, new mediating mechanisms and questioning the validity of
concepts can bring additional value. Business intelligence experts in the
region often report (increasingly) limited use of existing surveys, too
often based on outdated concepts that are not uniquely understood
across countries and over time. An enhanced institutional view (taking
formal and informal institutions at the same level as the unit of analysis,
but also as a higher-level variable in which units of analysis are nested)
could also assist with understanding business in the EU, the environ-
ment with globally the most sophisticated supranational and multi-
lateral institutions. Since IB theories are context-sensitive, the research
in CEE countries – that still acts a bridge between East and West – re-
mains attractive for the testing of EM concepts (developed outside CEE)
as well as Western European concepts. The comparisons with other
emerging economies in search for commonalities and differences in
behaviours and decisions may become even more attractive for devel-
oping new models. Transferring the experience of a rapid and diverse
transition, idiosyncratic integration, unstable democracies and the
context richness into new knowledge or theories thus continues to be a
challenge for CEE-related research. Moreover, after the revival of na-
tionalism, disintegration and backtracking-transition tendencies, it can
help to address the “grand challenges and big questions” of our time,
both within and beyond Europe.
The focus on context and the contextualisation of research is not an
11
Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
aim in itself, nor does it aim to make research studies simply content-
rich and interesting. CEE went from authoritarian communism to lib-
eral capitalism with a 19th-century touch. The reaction today to the
consequences of the rapid transition (like rising inequalities, destruc-
tion of certain local values, norms and traditions, socio-political po-
larisation) has given way in some countries to the backsliding of de-
mocratic institutions and more authoritarian regimes. Is this CEE
experience a fruitful basis for a more fundamental rethinking of tran-
sition/transformation processes in the world generally since such ten-
dencies are spreading across almost all of the world? Understanding the
nature and degree of differences between CEE countries from the micro
perspective, but also between emerging economies and mature econo-
mies should allow us to address truly important questions of practical
significance: how will the research develop in the near future and will
CEE countries' development paths permit them to close the gap vis-à-vis
developed economies? Or perhaps the historical imprints, particula-
rities of transition paths, and global trends will destabilise the formal
institutions developed with so much effort and these countries will see a
future regression of their social and economic development.
5.2. Determinants of success/failures, entrepreneurship and IB strategy
Entrepreneurship and MNEs play a major role in future develop-
ment as does exploring their strategies and the determinants of failures
and success. The mushrooming entrepreneurship was one of the best
results of the transition. Many world-class small- and medium-sized
companies from the region dominate world-market niches for specia-
lised products with innovative strategies. While CEE-IB research has
offered some contributions to help understand the causes and outcomes
of growth, the consequences and factors influencing the dilemma be-
tween growing further/becoming an MNC, being taken over by an MNC
or even keeping a low profile in terms of market presence and market
expansion have yet to be explored in any detail in these contexts.
The proposed methods (and their combinations) can upgrade the
existing knowledge concerning the internationalisation of firms. A
variety of case studies and firm-level studies document the increasing
heterogeneity, non-linear and hardly predictable process that retains its
high failure rate. ‘The internationalization menu’ (including the options
how, where and when to go international) is less prescriptive, is
growing longer and allows rising diversification; orchestrating markets,
entry modes/ways of cooperation with foreign partners and the timings
of these decisions are becoming more complex than ever, which also
calls for new typologies/taxonomies of multinational enterprises. More
comparative, multilevel and process research is needed to determine
what determines their survival and growth, how (home market and
regional) institutional complexity and instability influence the inter-
national strategy, agility and international adaptability of firms. This
would help explain why CEE MNEs are fast as knowledge-localisers or
customizers, adapting global knowledge to local needs in the domestic
market, and yet quite slow as knowledge-creators for generating new
solutions for global markets (Woodward, Yörük, & Radosevic, 2011). Or
how do different levels of institutions influence co-operation and
partnership, which sometimes result in superior networking (Mathews,
2006). And which dimensions of the CEE context influence en-
trepreneurship and the international growth of firms?
IB research in CEE should follow the recent trend of merging levels,
themes and disciplines. Many topics and issues in IB, strategic man-
agement and entrepreneurship have been studied for years. Looking
more carefully at the phenomena and developments on the borderlines,
rifts, crossroads can provide us with insights with respect to the
boundary conditions of existing theories and models. The phenomenon
of varied born globals (ranging from SMEs to consortiums of public
and/or private actors) and the diversity of their (de-/re)inter-
nationalisation strategies may be an incentive for revisiting the existing
models and for understanding EM MNEs. New ideas and approaches at
the intersections of strategic entrepreneurship, global strategies,
A. Jaklič, et al.
international entrepreneurship, structural dynamic process and others
that are currently only under development should guide these efforts.
We can therefore use the transition experience, underdevelopment,
heterogeneity and instability of the CEE region to better understand the
adventurous internationalisation of entrepreneurial firms without re-
sources and knowledge, the learning and growth of small multi-
nationals, networks in the institutional instability of the internationally
competitive landscape, the impact of the complex interplay of politics,
social movements and economic developments on business actors, as
reflected in springboard theory (Luo & Tung, 2007, 2018). Process re-
search on outcomes could further reveal potential benefits and risks
associated with internationalisation in different contexts (Caputo,
Pellegrini, Dabic, & Dana, 2016; Minbaeva, 2016).
The growing complexity of operations and rising institutional
complexity – seen in the rising number of types (formal, semi-formal,
informal) and levels (subnational and supranational) of institutions –
that co-exist at the junction of East and West – make CEE a still pro-
mising research area providing research outputs of use beyond CEE.
However, researchers cannot engage in CEE research in IB without
setting it alongside global trends locally. More international research
teams (better cooperation within the region and with other emerging
markets), a more comparative perspective, the interaction of macro,
firm-level and micro (individual) IB units could bring about higher
excellence and original contributions in theory building.
5.3. Bibliometric research
Making genuine contributions by being at the forefront of learning
about globalisation, or the recent anti-globalisation and disintegration
tendencies and their influences on people, organisations and societies
requires up-to-date monitoring of IB complexity and increased co-
operation with business and researchers across disciplines, followed by
rich writing, experimental theories and methodologies. Bibliographics
seems a productive tool to this end. Researchers today have better ac-
cess to data and longer timeseries. The experiences of inter-
nationalisation latecomers and newcomer MNEs have become rich en-
ough to trace evidence and enable the development of new models and
theory building. Many regionally-born globals, start-ups and rapidly
growing blockchain hubs in CEE, which successfully integrated into
global value chains or even created and manage their own global value
chains and networks, are a good base for CEE-related research and IB
theory development in the 21st century.
We explored the evolution of CEE research in the field of IB over the
last five decades. In this first bibliometric attempt, we looked at the
question of how well CEE as a region and research territory is re-
presented in WOS and limited ourselves to the: (i) volume of papers and
trends over time; (ii) key topics; and (iii) the main citation path, and
avoided lists of publications and authors. The comprehensives biblio-
metric analysis facilitated by blockmodeling helped us identify the in-
terest of research over time, the biggest periods and drivers of CEE-
related research. Main citation path analysis highlights the major routes
of knowledge flow, seminal works in prestigious journals, the strong
“inter-field” citation, and impact of CEE-related research in IB. Most
CEE works remain outside the main citation paths, yet the number of
routes that might influence future research have grown in the last
decade with the increased volume of work. WOS publications namely
represent only a fraction of CEE-related IB research, meaning there is
more to be explored in future. The study may stimulate new biblio-
metric research (also using other digital datasets) in other regions, and
assist with research policy and management. Further, in WOS the
constructed networks enable further analysis on relations between
publications, journals, authors, their institutions, countries and the
topic explored. Later work may further explore linkages between topics,
works, countries, theoretical streams, authors, research teams etc.
Citation networks are not only able to give further insight into the most
cited works, but reveal lower (regional) levels of citation paths,
12
Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
cognitive networks and the directions in which knowledge flows. Given
the amount of information that comprehensive bibliometrics can yield,
we see such an interdisciplinary approach as a promising area of re-
search in IB.
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