Longitudinal qualitative research combining grounded theorizing and insights from modern historical methods can generate novel conceptual frameworks that establish theoretical bridges between historical narratives and reductionist quantitative models. To capitalize fully on this potential theory-bridging role, qualitative scholars should seek to study social systems characterized by complexity and nonlinear causation. Effectively serving this theory-bridging role provides a basis for securing a distinctive place for qualitative research in the social sciences in general, and for international business research in particular.
