Table 1. Comparison of four research projects in international business.
Dimension Sugar Project SME Project Expatriate Project Elevator Project
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Focus area business networks dynamics of expatriate less-hierarchical organizations
internationalization performance mgt and inter-unit communication
Industry sugar high-tech and telecommunications elevator
high-design
Type of focal organization commodity SMEs MNC MNC
exporter
Number of elite 17 19 14 44
interviewees
Share in relation to total 49% 90% 17% 36%
number of interviewees
Average age of elites 60 yrs 50 yrs 45 yrs 50 yrs
Gender of elites 1 female all males all males 2 females
Distribution of elites Australian, British, all Finnish Australian, Finnish, Austrian, Australian, British,
by nationality Mauritian Swedish Finnish, German, Italian,
Mexican, Spanish
Type of elites business and business and business business
government government
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Table 2. Criteria for identifying elite interviewees across four projects in international business.
Criterion Sugar Project SME Project Expatriate Project Elevator Project
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history
manufacturing
(3) Personal assets
and external and external and external
(4) International exposure high high high high
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Abbreviations
CHQ = corporate headquarters
RHQ = regional headquarters
DS = domestic subsidiary
FS = foreign subsidiary
Table 3. Summary of effective procedures used in elite interviews across the four research projects.
Stage Sugar Project SME Project Expatriate Project Elevator Project
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external and cascading, ‘insider’ strategy ‘insider’ strategy,
internal cascading external cascading, cascading,
and snowballing, snowballing, snowballing, snowballing,
non-commercial pay-off in very non-commercial English and
aims of the study concrete terms aims of the study, ‘company speak’
English and ‘company in communication
speak’ in communication
encouraging ‘insider’ ‘insider’ strategy, ‘insider strategy,
intellectual strategy, encouraging capitalizing on gaps
dialogue, capitalizing intellectual dialogue,
capitalizing on on gaps capitalizing on gaps
gaps
of translators of translators
final draft final draft choosing the
appropriate language
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