The International Business Research Group (previously known under the name International Business Centre) was established by Professor Olav Jull Sørensen in 1984.

As one of the oldest research groups at AAUBS, it has nurtured academic and socially engaged international business thinking, research, teaching, and consulting activities, fostering an internal culture of innovative thematic thinking, fellowship, engagement, and inclusiveness.

Following the creation of Aalborg University Business School (AAUBS), the International Business Centre was transformed into International Business Research Group (IBG) to fit into the organisational structure of the Business School.

Throughout its existence, IBG has been committed to teaching, research, and service to the business community fostering new knowledge creation in diverse areas of international business. Its active dissemination constitute teaching using Problem Based Learning, academic research and publications, and proactive business and public engagement.

IBG is a micro eco-system of international business knowledge, experiences, cultures, and nationalities, enabled by critical analysis of contemporary international business phenomena, aspiration to capturing new trends, commitment to students, collegiality, and support for professional development.

At present, IBG offers the MSc in International Business, which is part of the MSc Programme Suite of AAUBS. For many years, the IBC delivered the highly successful MSc programmes in International Business Economics and International Marketing that have educated thousands of master’s students.

Teaching and learning use the Problem-Based Learning model that increases the competitiveness and employability of our students. MSc International Business graduates are employed in various management roles and policy-making positions in Denmark, Europe, and across the world.

Our students come from diverse continents and countries. This creates a unique cross-cultural learning environment where national cultures and sub-cultures interact, and graduates learn from each other on academic and personal level. During their studies, students have had opportunities to engage with and present their high impact and applied research regionally, nationally, and internationally.

IBG is home to a team of inspirational academic and support staff that play an important role in its mission of excellence in international business research and publications, Problem-Based Learning, and business and community engagement.

Its academic staff have a comprehensive portfolio of subject-specific and geographical expertise in internationalisation of born global, small- and medium-sized, and multinational firms operating across borders.

More specifically, the IBG’s research is multifaceted, including competences in internationalisation, business group affiliation and risk, internationalisation in and from developed and emerging economies, international entrepreneurship, emergence and de-internationalisation, and international business strategy with reference to digitalisation, business models, sustainability and circularity, business systems, innovation, value co-creation, decoupling and resilience of firms- GVCs- ecosystems, and human resource management.

Through its collaboration with private and public organisations and institutions, the academic staff of IBG co-creates innovative knowledge thus contributing inter alia to national and international business and economic policy agendas.

The IBG is home to a high quality inter-sectorial, inter-technology, inter-disciplinary and international research platform for doctoral studies and the training of a new generation of innovative and entrepreneurial Doctoral researchers.

Our research aims to enhance the IBG’s international research visibility. We do this by building up research competences, subject-specific and inter-disciplinary ideation, encouraging diversity, teamwork, and co-authorship to reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the international business research domain. 

We do this by ensuring a focus on international business and international entrepreneurship thinking, balance between established and new areas of research interest, adopting a portfolio approach to publications, and nurturing inclusion and openness.

Key research domains

• International business management and strategy
• International entrepreneurship management and strategy
• International marketing management and strategy

Key research areas

• Institutions and international business
• Small and medium-sized firms’ emergence, internationalisation, de-internationalisation, and firm survival
• Innovation and value co-creation and MNCs and ecosystems
• Emerging economies and multinational firms
• Decoupling, resilience and re-configuration of business models and ecosystems
• Sustainability and circularity in GVCs
• International Human Resource Management

IBG staff have published papers in Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, Global Strategy Journal, International Business Review, Management International Review, International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Research, Journal of European Marketing, Management and Organisation Review, European Journal of International Management, European Business Review, Thunderbird International Business Review, among others.

Our staff are Series Editors for world-renowned publishers, including Taylor and Francis - Routledge and Springer - Palgrave Macmillan. We have published and edited numerous books.

View all of our publications in Aalborg University's research portal VBN.

Based on our mission, we work towards enhancing the Impact-Dissemination-Partnerships, and Funding in our research.

• Impact: We aim to create impact through “knowledge transfer that involves capturing, collecting, and sharing explicit and tacit knowledge, including skills and competences; it includes both commercial and non-commercial activities such as publication, research collaborations, consultancy, licensing, spin-off creation, and researcher mobility.
• Dissemination: We aim to produce and disseminate innovative and relevant research on international business issues at the crossroad of academic enquiry and business practice to meet societal grand challenges in a changing world order with heightened velocity, connectivity, and interdependence.
• Partnerships: The ambition of the group is to continue strengthening the existing national and international partnerships as well as establishing new ones with all our stakeholder groups including students, academic peers, industry, policy makers. The unique advantage of the group is in our inherent global linkages which could be utilized in maintaining and extending a portfolio of our national and international partnerships.
• Funding: The ambition of the IB-Global is to attract more external funding in the key research areas of international business and international entrepreneurship associated with contemporary international and societal challenges. The funding applications should be strategically informed by the fit of research focus and the IBG competences and be relevant in exploring the existing and developing new research interests of the IB research group.

We are proud to host numerous PhD students. The IBG organises workshops for Doctoral students in the newly created PhD-Hub, which is a platform for learning and sharing of ideas, methodological experiences, paper development issues, publication tips, etc., with the participation of internationally leading scholars (for further information, please contact D. Slepniov).

In addition, the IBG through the LNETN and the INTN provide a high quality inter-sectorial, inter-technology, inter-disciplinary and international research platform for the training of a new generation of innovative, entrepreneurial, and creative doctoral researchers (for further information, please contact R. Turcan).

The IBG has led and participated in numerous research and development projects funded by national and European funding bodies such as Danida, Tempus, Erasmus+, H2020, NOS-HS, the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, and SDC, among others.

Examples of recently funded projects include:

• “Legitimation of Newness and Its Impact on EU Agenda for Change”, EU Marie Curie ITN, R. Turcan.
• “Danish-Israeli Virtual International Teams Network”, Danish Agency for Science and HE, M. Marinov.
• “Enhancing Value Creation and Value Capture through Business Model Configuration: An Ecosystem Perspective”, NOS-HS, S. Marinova.
• ” Circular Economy in Bangladesh’s Garment Industry,” Danida, M.B. Rana.
• “Climate change and global value chains in Bangladesh”, Danida, M.B. Rana.
• “International Entrepreneurship Network for PhD and PhD Supervisor Training” R. Turcan and A. Bujac.
• “Talent Programme”, A. Nowinska.
• SDC funding, Dmitrij Slepniov, D. Wang, Yimei Hu, and Jonas Eduardsen.

Through their collaboration with private and public organisations and institutions, our academic staff co-creates new, innovative knowledge thus contributing inter alia to national and international business and economic policy agenda.

The affiliates of the International Business Research Group provide teaching on different levels. Using Problem Based Learning, our academic staff bring state-of-the-art research into the classroom and teaching-based research by challenging the boundaries of the state-of-the-art together with the students.

The below study programmes are the programmes where our researchers most often teach.

• MSc in International Business
• MSc in Innovation Management (China)