Book Reviews
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BOOK REVIEWS Providing the definitive overview over the state-of-the art of an academic field is a formidable challenge for senior researchers. The publishers Blackwell, Oxford University Press and Edward Elgar have in recent years succeeded in assembling groups of eminent scholars to take up this challenge. Several of these handbooks are of interest to scholars in international business, and have thus been reviewed in JIBS: The Oxford Handbook of International Business (OHIB) (Stopford, 2002), the Blackwell Handbook of Cross-Cultural Management (BHCCM) (Tayeb, 2003), the Blackwell Handbook of Entrepreneurship (BHE) (Keil, 2003) and Elgar’s Handbook of Research on International Entrepreneurship (HRIE) (Oviatt, 2005). This issue adds three new additions to this bookshelf, the Blackwell Handbook of Global Management (BHGM) (reviewed by Helen De Cieri), the Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods for International Business (HQRM) (reviewed by Anna Soulsby) and the Handbook of Research in International Marketing (HRIM) (reviewed by Pervez Ghauri). Given this assembly of weighty books amounting to over 1000 pages each, has this publishing agenda been worthwhile? Across the seven book reviews, a few observations emerge. The aim of these handbooks is to provide a comprehensive overview of the field, and the target audiences are usually, except for BHGM, scholars, particularly Ph.D. students. Given the pricing of these volumes, they aim at becoming frequently read items in university libraries, while the paperback editions may be a required reading in a Ph.D. course. The reviewers are mostly impressed by the breadth and depth of knowledge assembled, and they recommend the handbooks for Ph.D. students as well as for scholars wishing to update their knowledge of their field. However, reviewers have more mixed views on the editors’ ability to bring out the overall themes of recent research, and the agenda for future research. Some handbooks are built around a common theme, such as ‘globalization is a manifestation of complexity’ in the BHGM. Yet, other reviewers fail to identify a clear overall contribution of the volume. Drawing out the common themes is indeed not an easy task, given the diversity of contributors, and authors’ tendency to emphasize their own research agenda. Thus, readers should form their own opinion on the overall direction of research, which, given the intellectual capacity of the targeted audience, should be a reasonable challenge. Moreover, it can be expected that some of the chapters in these handbooks will become frequently cited items in their own right, and all reviewers offer their views on which chapters this might be. Most of the handbooks focus on recent trends in theoretical and empirical research. Yet, two handbooks, HQRM and HRIM, aim to provide practical advice to researchers on their research methodologies. These handbooks thus also have the clear objective to enhance the quality of research and, in t
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