The insights from the crowd: Drawing inferences from many approaches to key empirical questions in international business
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In this crowdsourced initiative, 57 independent analysts used the same longitudinal dataset to address four major empirical questions in international business. For all four research questions, different analysts obtained substantial estimates in opposite directions, meaning that they could have drawn any conclusion at all had they conducted the project alone. Aggregating across the results obtained by different analysts pointed to an overall answer for two of the four research questions, although for one of the two questions, the evidence was more suggestive than conclusive. That said, the variability in results was not simply random, and could in some cases be meaningfully explained. Choices regarding how to operationalize variables played an important role in determining the empirical results, and expert analysts were more likely to report large positive effects. Rather than exhibiting a bias to confirm their pre-existing beliefs, analysts appeared to rationally update their beliefs considering the evidence. Overall, these findings empirically demonstrate the role of subjective researcher choices in shaping results in international business research yet also show that it is still possible to draw meaningful conclusions in science. We advocate for an open science of international business in which the consequences of subjective analytic choices are rendered as transparent as possible.
Authors: Andrew Delios, Tianyou Hu, Shu Yu, Nan Zhou, Faisal M. Ahsan, Mona Bahl, Tao Bai, Madhurima Basu, Hanoku Bathula, Georgios Batsakis, Jorge Carneiro, Dwarka Chakravarty, Danyang Chen, Weihong Chen, Ying-Yu Chen, Luis Alfonso Dau, Shu Deng, Desislava Dikova, Xiaomin Fan, Viswa Prasad Gada, Dongdong Huang, Hyun Gon Kim, Kyungjoong Kim, Aleš Kubíček, Chengguang Li, Wen Helena Li, Yi Li, Yuanyuan Li, Yung-Chih Lien, Huanchen Liu, Wei Liu, Grigorij Ljubownikow, Racheal Louis Vincent, Ondřej Machek, Parul Manocha, Yoichi Matsumoto, Atthaphon Mumi, Chao Niu, N. Nuruzzaman, Vidya Sukumara Panicker, K. Praveen Parboteeah, Wei Qiao, Xiaole Qiao, Shyamala Sethuram, Ao Shen, Lei Shi, Evis Sinani, Sandeep Sivakumar, Pei-Shan Soon, Maximilian Stallkamp, Priit Tinits, Daniel Tolstoy, Andranik Tumasjan, Mayank Varshney, Andres Velez-Calle, Chris Wagner, Peng Wang, Xingang Wang, Yong Wang, Liang Wen, Tao Wu, Sandeep Yadav, Jiaju Yan, Jing Yu Yang, Megan Zhang, Weihao Zhang, Yameng Zhang, Yang Zhao, Eric Uhlmann
Institutions: National University of Singapore, University of Macau, Monash University, Tongji University, Xavier School of Management, Illinois State University, The University of Queensland, Symbiosis International University, University of Auckland, Brunel University of London, Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo, San Diego State University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Guangxi University, National Dong Hwa University, Northeastern University, University of Mississippi, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Glasgow Caledonian University, Nankai University, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Northwest Missouri State University, Prague University of Economics and Business, Technical University of Munich, University of Technology Sydney, The University of Sydney, California State University Los Angeles, National Taiwan University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Qingdao University, Monash University Malaysia, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Keio University, Mahasarakham University, National Institute of Development Administration, City University of Hong Kong, University of Manchester, Loughborough University, University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, Xiamen University, Chang'an University, Baruch College, Xidian University, University of International Business and Economics, Copenhagen Business School, Indian Institute of Management Raipur, Sunway University, East Carolina University, Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Economiques, Stockholm School of Economics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Universidad EAFIT, Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University, Southwest Jiaotong University, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Baylor University, Northwest Normal University, INSEAD
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,790
Awards: G180185047, G4681160773
OpenAlex ID: W4415925987