Routines in International Business: A semi-systematic review of the concept

Routines are a crucial element in different streams of International Business (IB) research. This semi-systematic review examines articles published in top-ranked IB journals to analyze how the concept routines is used, in order to provide orientations for future research in the field. A systematic search process in three databases, followed by inductive text analysis and a cluster analysis, identifies three distinct research streams on routines in International Business: Global strategy, international organizational learning, and internationalization processes. A comprehensive analysis of the use of the concept in IB is presented by documenting qualities, types, dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of routines in the extant research. We integrate the fragmented and often implicit aspects ascribed to routines in IB research, so that future research can draw upon a defragmented, synthesized, and clarified concept. Opportunities for future contributions are highlighted in five broad areas: hierarchy and order in the MNE; agents, context, and time; distributing routines; distributed routines; and the non-routine.