The development of IB as a scientific field

•International business is today an established field in business studies with two professional associations and numerous academic publications.•However, as a field it is much younger than many other fields in the management area.•Although economists were focusing on international issues even before, it was not until after World War II that IB emerged as a scientific field.•The purpose of this paper is to analyze this development from the early days until the present time.•Using a theoretical framework, it focuses on the organizing of the field and provides empirical evidence on significant contributions.