CIBEM aims to be a leading European center for research on international business with focus on emerging markets. To reach this objective, CIBEM promotes research in three related research areas.

Firstly, most CIBEM researchers include generic international business topics in their research portfolios. A necessary foundation for high-class research on emerging markets is a thorough understanding of the theories and empirical regularities related to international business in general. Hence, broad topics related to management, marketing, strategy, and innovation in multinational enterprises, as well as international trade and investment issues in a broad European perspective, are important ingredients in CIBEM's overall research profile. In principle, all CIBEM researchers regularly work with projects that have no explicit emerging market focus.

Secondly, CIBEM's core research focuses on these broad topics in an emerging market context. In particular, projects focus on the application and implementation of international business theory in specific emerging markets, with an explicit comparative approach. One important objective is to determine how and under what circumstances the strategies and policies applied in the domestic western European environment must be modified to emerging market conditions. Another aim is to understand the structure, strategies, and performance of emerging market multinationals. In many cases, it is expected that these insights will contribute to the development of international business theory in general. Some projects will also look at emerging markets from a macro perspective, focusing on the interaction between developed economies and emerging markets, and the role of emerging markets in the global economy.

A third crucial research area concerns market conditions in emerging economies. Some projects will therefore focus on understanding the changes in the business conditions in emerging markets - including political, institutional and economic developments - as a necessary input to the analysis of structure, strategy, and performance in international business.

Both the geographical focus and the methodological profile of CIBEM are broad. Apart from the BRICs - Brazil, Russia, India, and China - and their hinterland, CIBEM research covers East and Southeast Asia and the European transition economies. Some projects also include African and South American economies, in particular as hosts for foreign direct investment from the West and from various emerging markets. The Center's research covers both micro and macro aspects of international business - case studies as well as analyses at more aggregated levels, and qualitative as well as quantitative work - and is often explicitly based on comparative study.