Managerial decision-making in international business: A forty-five-year retrospective

We identify key theoretical developments in international managerial decision-making research, synthesize how they have been employed, and discuss contributions that may emerge as researchers devote increased attention to bounded rationality. Since behavioral factors were first introduced into the international business literature, there has been an increasing trend toward acknowledging the decision makers’ role in foreign direct investment and related strategies. However, the reasoning, which explains the characteristics and outcomes of managerial decision-making in the multinational enterprise (MNE), remains implicit and ambiguous. There are a number of potential concerns associated with the assumptions of dominant rational decision-making models and with models that omit decision makers. We highlight these concerns and discuss the benefits of, and opportunities for, models that incorporate bounded rationality, decision-making biases, and judgments by managers.