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Social construction of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issues and moving international business research forward
Onaji-Benson, Theresa Hurd, F. Raskovic, M.M
Onaji-Benson, Theresa
Hurd, F.
Raskovic, M.M
Publication Date
2026-05-11
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© 2026 Emerald. This author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0). This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please contact permissions@emerald.com.
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2026-03-18
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Abstract
Purpose: This scene-setting viewpoint rounds up a two-part special issue focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in international business (IB). If the first part of the special issue focused on DEI blind spots and the juxtaposition between the DEI business case and the DEI social justice case, the second part critically discusses the social construction of DEI issues in IB settings and the role played by context in IB-DEI research.
Design/methodology/approach: We discuss critically five IB-DEI research areas cover by the papers in this special issue. The first three examine gender in specific national cultures (i.e., Japan) and professional settings (i.e., academia), and look at making work-integrated learning more inclusive. The latter two address two particular DEI blindspots: neurodiversity and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and other sexual orientation (LGBTQIA+) community. Underlying our critical discussion of the five IB-DEI research areas is the issue of their socially constructed nature.
Findings: Interrogating the social construction of DEI issues in IB settings calls for a shift from merely contextualising the local embeddedness of social identities and societal expectations/practices regarding DEI towards problematising power relations which reproduce structural barriers and social inequities that result in the exclusion (and sometimes oppression) of specific social identity groups. Such problematising, however, first requires stronger theorising of context and not merely contextualisation of existing DEI and IB theories.
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Accepted manuscript
Citation
Onaji-Benson T, Hurd F and Raskovic MM (2026) Social construction of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issues and moving international business research forward. Critical Perspectives on International Business. 22(3): 313-333.
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