Professor Catherine Welch

Professor of Strategic Management (2018), Trinity Business School

welchc@tcd.ie https://www.tcd.ie/business/people/faculty-professors/welchc/

Biography

Catherine Welch is Chair of Strategic Management at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, having previously been a Professor at the University of Sydney, Australia. She is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Aalto University, Finland. Catherine's research has concentrated on approaches to context in international business research, particularly the use of qualitative research methodology and process approaches to studying firm internationalization. Her work has appeared in leading journals in international business and management, including the full range of major international business journals. She has a track record of launching new disciplinary conversations and advocating methodological and theoretical pluralism. She was the first author on a paper which won the 2021 Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) Decade Award. Catherine is the current Book Review Editor of JIBS and is a member of the journal's Research Methods Advisory Committee 2023-2025. She is an Associate Editor of Organizational Research Methods. She is Vice-President, Communications, and Newsletter Co-Editor for the Academy of International Business (AIB) Research Methods Shared Interest Group (RM-SIG), of which she was a founding member (https://rmsig.aib.world/newsletter/). From 2022-2025 she is serving on the AIB's board as Vice President Programs and is program chair for the academy's annual meeting in Seoul in 2024.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Gioia, D., Corley, K., Eisenhardt, K., Feldman, M., Langley, A., Lê, J., Golden-Biddle, K., Locke, K., Mees-Buss, J., Piekkari, R., Ravasi, D., Rerup, C., Schmid, T., Silverman, D., Welch, C., A Curated Debate: On Using "Templates" in Qualitative Research, Journal of Management Inquiry, 31, (3), 2022, p231-252Journal Article, 2022, DOI
Mees-Buss, J., Welch, C., Piekkari, R., From Templates to Heuristics: How and Why to Move Beyond the Gioia Methodology, Organizational Research Methods, 25, (2), 2022, p405-429Journal Article, 2022, DOI
Kriz, A., Rumyantseva, M., Welch, C., How science-based start-ups and their entrepreneurial ecosystems co-evolve: A process study, Industrial Marketing Management, 105, 2022, p439-452Journal Article, 2022, DOI
Welch, C., Paavilainen-Mäntymäki, E., Piekkari, R., Plakoyiannaki, E., Reconciling theory and context: How the case study can set a new agenda for international business research, Journal of International Business Studies, 53, (1), 2022, p4-26Journal Article, 2022, DOI
Nielsen, B.B., Welch, C., Chidlow, A., Miller, S.R., Aguzzoli, R., Gardner, E., Karafyllia, M., Pegoraro, D., Fifty years of methodological trends in JIBS: Why future IB research needs more triangulation, Journal of International Business Studies, 51, (9), 2020, p1478-1499Journal Article, 2020, DOI
Mees-Buss, J., Welch, C., Westney, D.E., What happened to the transnational? The emergence of the neo-global corporation, Journal of International Business Studies, 50, (9), 2019, p1513-1543Journal Article, 2019, DOI
, Innovation and internationalisation processes of firms with new-to-the-world technologies, Journal of International Business Studies, 2018Journal Article, 2018, DOI
Welch, C., Piekkari, R., How should we (not) judge the `quality" of qualitative research? A re-assessment of current evaluative criteria in International Business, Journal of World Business, 52, (5), 2017, p714-725Journal Article, 2017, DOI
, The internationalization process model revisited: An agenda for future research, Management International Review, 2016Journal Article, 2016, DOI
, Using case research to reconstruct concepts: A methodology and illustration, Organizational Research Methods, 2016Journal Article, 2016, DOI
Welch C., Piekkari R., Plakoyiannaki E., Paavilainen-Mantymaki E., Theorising from case studies: Towards a pluralist future for international business research, Journal of International Business Studies, 42, (5), 2011, p740 - 762, p740-762Journal Article, 2011, DOI
Andrew Delios, Catherine Welch, Bo Nielsen, Herman Aguinis, Chris Brewster, Reconsidering, refashioning, and reconceptualizing research methodology in international business, Journal of World Business, 58, (6), 2023, p101488Journal Article, 2023, DOI
Maria Rumyantseva, Catherine Welch, The born global and international new venture revisited: An alternative explanation for early and rapid internationalization, Journal of International Business Studies, 54, (7), 2023, p1193--1221Journal Article, 2023, DOI
Alexandra Kriz, Maria Rumyantseva, Catherine L Welch, When does the internationalization process begin? Problematizing temporal boundaries in international business, Journal of World Business, 58, (3), 2023, p101423Journal Article, 2023, DOI
Tine Köhler, Maria Rumyantseva, C.L. Welch, Qualitative Restudies: Research Designs for Retheorizing, Organizational Research Methods, 2023Journal Article, 2023, URL
Du J., Nielsen B.B., Welch C., From Buzzword to Biz World: Realizing Blockchain's Potential in the International Business Context, California Management Review, 66, (1), 2023, p124 - 148, p124-148Journal Article, 2023

Research Expertise

Description

My research interests are: International strategy, firm internationalization processes, qualitative research methodologies. In my career to date, I have initiated a discussion in my field about the use of qualitative research methodologies, process approaches to firm internationalization (both SMEs and MNEs) and, most recently, contextual theorizing. I have recently co-edited a special issue on future research methodologies for the Journal of World Business and am currently editing a special issue of the Journal of International Business Studies on "Integrating Historical Approaches in International Business: Moving Beyond `History Matters'". As program chair of the Academy of International Business annual meeting in 2024, I have selected a conference theme that reflects my research interests: The Dynamics of International Business.

Winner 2021 Journal of International Business Studies Decade Award 2021
Fellow, Trinity College Dublin 2023
Fellow, Academy of International Business June 2022

Academy of Management