Cross-Level IB Theory Development (jibs-theory-development)

When to trigger

• Your hypotheses read as "A relates to B" with no IB mechanism
• Country or culture appears in the model but is not theorized as a level
• You are unsure whether your moderator is a cross-level or same-level effect
• A reviewer says "the theoretical contribution to IB is unclear"

Theorize across levels, not just across borders

JIBS's signature is that country and culture are levels of analysis. Strong JIBS theory makes the cross-level logic explicit:

• Name the levels. Individual, firm/subsidiary, and country. State which level the focal construct, the cause, and the outcome each live on.
• Specify the cross-level mechanism. How does a country/culture-level condition (institutions, cultural values, distance, political risk) shape a firm- or individual-level process? Avoid "anthropomorphizing" a country — translate the macro condition into the micro mechanism it operates through.
• Distance and asymmetry. If you invoke "distance" (cultural, institutional, geographic, psychic), theorize its direction and asymmetry — the effect of country A on B need not equal B on A. Treat distance as a mechanism, not a black-box covariate.
• Boundary conditions. State the conditions under which the IB mechanism holds or reverses across contexts; JIBS prizes boundary conditions over universal claims.

Anchor in an IB theoretical tradition