Moving diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) research forward with(in) international business: Addressing blind spots through critical and reflexive management scholarship

Abstract

We present a scene-setting viewpoint that critically examines various diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) blind spots within the field of international business (IB). These include issues such as social justice, intersectionality, de-colonization, the co-creation of inclusive research practices in indigenous spaces, social dialogue, and the gap between DEI rhetoric and reality. We also contextualize our discussion in terms of the six papers which make up the first part of our two-part special issue on DEI in IB. We build on existing DEI overview works and comment on specific DEI blind spots. We also discuss the role of positionality as critical reflexive scholarship practice, which we see as an essential step in problematizing structural inequalities. We then discuss six specific areas where DEI blindspots persist within the IB literature and link our discussion to the six papers included in the first part of our DEI special issue. Addressing the contradictions between the business and social justice cases for DEI requires addressing the ontological contradictions between the two perspectives through problematizing structural inequalities. A key contribution of the paper is also the discussion around positionality in DEI research and the relevance of positionality statements as part of critical reflexive scholarship in support of a socially just DEI research agenda. We discuss the role DEI research plays and can play within the evolution of the IB discipline. We apply a critical management studies perspective to pervasive DEI issues, as well as engage with the topics in the special issue through a unique critical reflexive epistemology which includes our own positionality statements as guest editors and researchers. Our critical discussion and recommendations for future research serve as a kind of whetstone to sharpen IB’s DEI research tools and in turn for IB to help sharpen DEI research’s tools, supporting it to become more socially just.