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International Business

International Business (IB) combines international expertise with the functional areas of General Management, emphasizing issues facing the multinational enterprise (MNE) and businesses engaged in dealings across national borders. The strength in this combination allows students to explore a deeper understanding of the cross-border intra- and inter-organizational relationships of the MNE, and incorporates a multi-level approach that also addresses the economic, institutional, sociocultural, and sociopolitical contexts in which the MNE is embedded.

The IB group at Ivey encourages students to engage with the academic community early, with many students presenting their work at the Academy of International Business and Academy of Management Annual Conferences. Our students deliver high-quality research that has frequently been recognized in leading dissertation award competitions, including those presented by the Academy of Management IM Division, the Academy of International Business, and the European International Business Academy. Ivey’s IB area group’s PhD graduates are frequent winners or finalists of these awards.

PhD students regularly co-author with senior scholars in the IB group, and their papers have received Best Paper Awards at: Academy of International Business Annual Meeting, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Strategic Management Society Annual International Conference, Administrative Sciences of Canada Annual Conference, and Association of Japanese Business Studies Annual Conference.

Our current  IB group at Ivey consists of Paul Beamish, Klaus Meyer, Andreas Schotter, Vanessa Hasse, Nina Rosenbusch, Shengwen Li, Elie Chrysostome, and Romel Mostafa. Though the common theme of IB unifies these colleagues, they draw on varied disciplinary bases to address issues of strategic alliances, foreign direct investment, subsidiary management, and boundary spanning leadership. They are particularly interested in studying these themes in emerging economies, including multinational enterprises originating from emerging economies. Leveraging their diversity, the IB group is interested in understanding IB phenomena from a multi-level and multi-disciplinary perspective. The International Business Institute supports this research. 

*Please note that IB is a stream under General Management

Areas of Research Focus

  • Strategies and performance of international joint ventures
  • Management of international alliances
  • Motives and strategies of foreign direct investment
  • Managing subsidiaries of multinational enterprises
  • Doing business and social justice in lower-income economies
  • Global value chain governance

The IB group ranks among the world's top 10 IB departments in terms of impact and productivity, and regularly publishes in the field’s top journals, such as Journal of International Business Studies, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, and Strategic Management Journal.

Current PhD Student Opportunities

IB is one of five possible specializations within Ivey’s General Management PhD program. The IB specialization is designed for those interested in pursuing academic careers at top business schools in IB, Strategy, or Management departments.

The IB group welcomes applications from qualified candidates who are interested in conducting research into themes related to their research interests. The following list is indicative of such projects:

All Professors within the IB group are recruiting PhD students to join their research on the management of MNE subsidiaries. Such subsidiaries interact with, and contribute to, host societies in multiple ways that merit deeper scholarly investigations. Topics within this research agenda may examine any aspect of the strategies and operations of MNE subsidiaries, including the drivers of subsidiary growth, performance knowledge management, scope reductions and divestment as well as their contribution to host country economic, social, and environmental objectives. We are particularly interested in research exploring the role that individuals, such as boundary spanners, have on subsidiary- and MNE-level outcomes. Sample research:

Professors Paul Beamish, Vanessa Hasse, and Elie Chrysostome are recruiting for a co-supervision of PhD students with a research interest in the area of international joint ventures (IJVs) and strategic alliances. Topics within this research area can range broadly from collaborative strategies to the management of IJVs and strategic alliances. Experience with or an interest in quantitative data analysis, especially using larger datasets, will be an asset. Sample research:

Professors Klaus Meyer and Bob Andersen are recruiting PhD students interested to analyze the impact of social and political disruption on businesses operating across national borders. This is a new stream of research which aims to enhance scholarly understanding of corporate strategies (e.g. mergers, acquisitions and divestments) as companies cope with an increasingly uncertain international business environment and/or with specific disruptions in international trade or investment regimes. Sample research:

Professors Paul Beamish, Vanessa Hasse, and Elie Chrysostome are recruiting for a co-supervision of PhD students with an interest in (and ideally direct exposure to) international business within frontier markets and the world’s poorest economies. Topics within this research area can range broadly from: FDI into or exit from these countries, social intermediation to reduce poverty, the role of management education, and response strategies for rare events, among others. Sample research:

Professor Klaus Meyer is recruiting PhD students with a research interest in the strategies and operations of multinational enterprises originating from emerging economies. Multinational enterprises from countries and regions such as China, India or South-East Asia face distinct challenges and opportunities arising from the economic and political structures of their home economies. This line of research is in particular exploring how companies address the strategic and operational challenges of catch-up strategies, including the engagement with market and nonmarket actors at home and abroad. Sample research:

 

Discipline Coordinator

Photo of Vanessa Hasse

Vanessa Hasse

Assistant Professor, International Business

Dr. Hasse's primary research interests focus on organizational responses to performance signals and outlier events in international contexts, with a particular focus on rare and impactful events.

Her research has been published in outlets such as the Academy of Management Journal, Global Strategy Journal, Business & Society, and more. She has received international recognition for her work, including the 2023 IM Division Best Paper Award in OB/HRM/OT (AOM) and the 2017 IM Division D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, Best Dissertation Award in International Management (AOM). She is also a co-author on the 9th edition of the popular textbook International Management Behavior, with M.L. Maznevski, H.W. Lane, and R.K. Nielsen.

Dr. Hasse has authored several case studies, some award-winning, and has been recognized internationally as a management educator for her innovations in designing transformative learning experiences. She is the recipient of multiple Teaching Excellence Awards (every year since 2021) and was named a Finalist for both the 2025 and 2021 Academy of International Business Teaching Innovation Award. Dr. Hasse is a board member at the Academy of International Business-Canada chapter.

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