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Early paradox research in organization theory contained a remarkable breadth of inspirations from outside disciplines. We wanted to know more about where early scholarship found inspiration to create what has since become paradox theory. To shed light on this, we engaged seminal paradox scholars in conversations: asking about their past experiences drawing from outside disciplines and their views on the future of paradox theory. These conversations surfaced several themes of past and future inspirations: (1) understanding complex phenomena; (2) drawing from related disciplines; (3) combining interdisciplinary insights; and (4) bridging discourses in organization theory. We end the piece with suggestions for future paradox research inspired by these conversations.

Internationalisation leads to a radical process of change through which an organisation modifies the focus of its operations, value system and cognitive framework so as to achieve a more internationally responsive structure (Whitehead, 1992). Earlier studies have investigated the internationalisation process considering the internal and external factors of the company and its market (Cavusgil et al., 2002; McGoldrick, 1998, 2002; McGoldrick & Davies, 1995; Treadgold & Davies, 1988). The internationalisation literature based on Uppsala studies about the internationalisation process of Swedish firms, (Johanson & Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975; Johanson & Vahlne, 1977) identified four different internationalisation stages called the “establishment chain”, which also applied to the retail context (Davies & Fergusson, 1995, p. 99). The results show that different stages demand different resource commitment from the company (Johanson & Vahlne, 1977). It is assumed that a company initially lacks knowledge of the local market. The level of local market knowledge affects the company's commitment decisions and its activities. The network approach (Johanson & Mattsson, 1988) could be applied to the study of vertical international relationships. It is, therefore, useful for the international sourcing activities of retailers (Dawson, 1994, p. 270) and provides a competitive advantage as well as flexibility, in which each of the organisations in the network is working towards a common objective (McGoldrick, 2002, p. 571). In the past 20 years, many researchers have paid more attention to network relationships, which have become the main marketing strategy. They agree that the study of network relationships between companies, suppliers and customers is more important than the marketing mix (Ghauri, 1999).