Doing business in India: a review of research in leading international journals

Abstract

Purpose – India has emerged as one of the major players on the new international business scene. Its unstoppable economic growth since reforms in 1991 has become the focus of attention of researchers in the area of international business and management. The purpose of this paper is to review the research on India that has been published in top business and management journals, with the aim of knowing what are the most influential papers, what are the issues that have received the most attention, which are the main findings or what more needs to be done in terms of research. Design/methodology/approach – The choice of journals was based on previous literature reviews. The authors reviewed 94 papers on India published in the 11 journals selected for the 1991-2010 period. Findings – The main results of the review are as follows; although there was great variety between the methodologies used, quantitative papers, including papers that used primary data, were the most frequent. With regard to journals, Journal of World Business, Journal of International Business Studies, International Business Review and Asia Pacific Journal of Management were the journals that had published the most papers on India during this period. The most popular topics were cultural influence and comparison between countries, business practices, studies which focus on one sector or company in India and the business operations and management of foreign companies in India. Originality/value – The most important contribution of this paper is the overview it provides of the main papers published on business and management in India for the 1991-2010 period: a period which witnessed significant changes in the country's economy. The paper identifies the journals which have devoted the most interest to this geographical region, which authors have contributed the most and which have been the most popular topics and findings.