While political connections are commonly linked to positive effects on firm performance, much less is known about the contingencies that shape these benefits. This study examines the simultaneous differential effects of political connections on domestic and international performance, and how political instability and regulatory deficiencies moderate these effects. Drawing on resource dependence and institutional theories, we argue that while political connections will be beneficial for performance in domestic markets, they will hinder firms’ international performance. Moreover, we postulate that these direct effects will be weakened by political instability and strengthened by regulatory deficiencies, respectively. We test these hypotheses using data from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys on more than 1300 firms from Egypt, a context marked by a high prevalence of political connections, persistent political instability, and severe regulatory deficiencies. Our empirical results yield important insights for managers in emerging economies who seek to balance the benefits of political connections with their strategic risks.
This study examines how family ownership affects a firm’s climate performance and how this effect is shaped by multinational enterprises’ (MNEs’) exposure to international institutional environments. Drawing on agency theory and the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective, we analyze Korean family-owned MNEs, which operate in a domestic context of institutional voids but interact with diverse global regulatory regimes. Using firm-level data on greenhouse gas emissions and foreign exchange-based measures of regional dependency, we find that concentrated family ownership is associated with weaker climate engagement. However, this relationship is context-dependent: internationalization mitigates the adverse effect of family ownership, especially when firms are exposed to environmentally stringent host countries. In contrast, exposure to institutionally lax environments reinforces or fails to offset this negative influence. No significant effects are found for intermediate levels of regulation. These findings show that family firms’ climate behavior is shaped not only by ownership structure but also by transnational institutional pressures. International exposure thus emerges as a potential substitute for weak home-country governance in emerging markets.
This study examines the relationship between outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and corporate greenwashing by Chinese multinational firms as a major category of emerging economy firms. While previous research has focused on the economic outcomes of OFDI, this study advances new knowledge about the OFDI effect on environmental practices of Chinese multinational firms, in particular greenwashing. We propose a U-shaped relationship between OFDI and greenwashing, grounded in the interplay between firms’ motivation and capability concerning green practices. Low OFDI boosts capability faster than legitimacy motivation, reducing greenwashing. As OFDI deepens, motivation outpaces capability due to diminishing learning returns, widening the gap and increasing greenwashing. Adopting a within-country comparative lens, we further explore the heterogeneity exhibited by Chinese multinational firms, which depends on varying top management team (TMT) backgrounds, organizational structures, and ownership configurations. By establishing a theoretical and empirical framework of firm heterogeneity within a single major emerging economy, we contribute to understanding firm-level variations that lay the groundwork for future cross-national comparative research with firms from other emerging economies. The findings provide critical insights into the complex relationships between OFDI and environmental decoupling behaviors in the Chinese context, with implications for other emerging economies.
Multinational enterprises (MNEs) sit at the center of global climate mitigation, ranking among the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions while possessing the reach and capabilities to advance decarbonization at scale. International business research has examined firms’ environmental strategies and national institutions largely in isolation, leaving unexplained why the same MNE may comply merely symbolically in one institutional setting while advancing substantive mitigation in another. This introductory article develops a comparative-institutional account of MNEs and climate change, showing how varieties of capitalism, geoeconomic competition, and deglobalization pressures shape corporate climate action. Drawing on this account and the six articles in the focused issue, we advance a mechanism-based framework in which MNEs simultaneously perform three functions, driving carbon-intensive globalization, mediating climate governance across borders and value chains, and mitigating emissions through innovation and capability building. We specify the institutional, ownership, and capability conditions under which each function becomes most prominent. We conclude with a research agenda that treats climate change not as context for international business but as a force reshaping multinationality itself.
This study draws on institutional economics and communicative institutionalism to conceptualise language as an institution which comprises socially shared rules and meanings that govern human interaction and affects country-level foreign direct investment (FDI). Specifically, shared language governs interpretation and coordination in cross-border investment relationships, thereby reducing behavioural and environmental uncertainty. In turn, language differences weaken this institutional function of language. To test this hypothesis, we employ a gravity model of 87,209 bilateral FDI observations comprising equity and debt positions across 246 countries and territories from 2010 to 2019. We find that greater language differences are associated with lower bilateral FDI stocks. We further show that formal institutional proximity and cultural proximity mitigate this negative association, offering alternative mechanisms for uncertainty reduction when language differences are large. In addition, language difference from English is negatively associated with FDI for both source and host countries. Overall, the study demonstrates that language functions as a key institutional determinant of FDI, extending language-sensitive IB research and institutional explanations of cross-border investment.
This article examines how early internationalizing firms (EIFs) navigate the transition from entry to the post-entry phase of internationalization, a critical yet understudied stage. Grounded in resource-based theory, the study explores how strategic resources evolve and interact over time to support sustained international growth. Drawing on a longitudinal multiple case study of five French EIFs, the findings reveal alternating phases of expansion and contraction—punctuated by distinct inflection points—that shape firms’ international processes. Two key factors emerge as central: entrepreneurs’ pivotal role as dynamic orchestrators in mobilizing and reconfiguring resources, and the synergistic combination of resources that enables firms to overcome long-term challenges. The study further identifies three distinct resource configurations that differentially shape firms’ capacity to sustain internationalization through the transition period. By highlighting these dynamics, the study contributes to the international entrepreneurship literature by extending resource-based perspectives on the temporal dimension of internationalization.
We examine how a firm’s favorability towards the national identity of its acquisition partner affects the acquisition premium. Using a sample of 435 cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M A) involving firms from 38 countries, we find that the acquisition premiums are lower when: (1) the acquiring firm holds more favorable views of the target firm’s national identity; and (2) the target firm holds more favorable views of the acquirer’s national identity. We also find that information asymmetry amplifies the effect of the acquirer's favorability towards the target firm’s country-of-origin on the acquisition premium. Specifically, country-of-origin favorability exerts a stronger influence on the premium in unrelated acquisitions, where acquirers often lack sufficient information and, consequently, face higher levels of uncertainty. Our findings contribute to research on acquisition pricing by identifying country-of-origin favorability as a previously overlooked determinant of acquisition premiums and by showing that its effects are asymmetric, with target-side favorability exerting a stronger influence than acquirer-side favorability.
Internationalization literature identifies various digital and non-digital related antecedents for accelerated internationalization. However, studies generally focus on only one category. These studies neglect how these two antecedent categories can interact to predict accelerated internationalization. Applying the concept of capabilities, we fill this gap with a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) using data from 178 Canadian manufacturing SMEs. Our study identifies four distinct antecedent configurations and shows that different combinations of digital and non-digital related antecedents lead to accelerated internationalization. For example, the results reveal a combination of entrepreneurial orientation, digital platform capabilities and digital dynamic capabilities as core conditions in young SMEs and a combination of entrepreneurial orientation and digital platform capabilities as core conditions in older SMEs for accelerated internationalization in an environment characterized by high competitive intensity. Accelerated internationalization is therefore predicted by a portfolio of capabilities. Our study contributes to the literature by showing the relevance of examining the two antecedent categories together rather than in isolation.
This research examines the influence of female-specific factors in the top management team (TMT) — namely, the female representation and female average age — on firm international engagement. It also explores how the nature of firm ownership moderates the relationship between these female-specific aspects and internationalization. Utilizing data from Chinese firms, our analysis reveals a positive relationship between female representation in TMTs and firm internationalization, contrasted with a negative relationship between TMT female average age and firm internationalization. Notably, the study reveals that the type of firm ownership plays a moderating role. In non-state-owned firms, the positive link between female representation in TMTs and internationalization is more pronounced. Conversely, in state-owned firms, the negative relationship between female average age in TMTs and internationalization is more pronounced. This research contributes to understanding the nuanced ways in which gender dynamics within top management influence firm internationalization, particularly in the context of emerging economies.
This systematic review synthesizes 76 studies on the internationalization of professional service firms (PSFs), recognizing their evolving boundaries from traditional sectors (e.g., law, accounting) to “quasi-PSF” sectors often classified as knowledge-intensive business services (e.g., information technology and software development). It develops an integrative framework that highlights the distinct antecedents, strategies, and outcomes of internationalization across these contexts. Unlike more capital-intensive firms, PSFs operate within high knowledge intensity, low capital intensity, and strong institutional embeddedness, leading to unique internationalization pathways. Our analysis further reveals that PSF strategies are shaped not only by institutional conditions but also by sub-sectoral logics and firm-level capabilities. The review critically evaluates the dominant theoretical lenses employed in existing research—external, internal, and relational—showing that each offers valuable insights but also exhibits important blind spots. We suggest that understanding the internationalization of PSFs benefits from service-sensitive, multi-level perspectives that consider professional norms, relational capital, and institutional dynamics. Our review shows that cross-border strategies in PSFs are shaped less by capital flows and more by intangibles, institutions, and relationships—factors often underemphasized in conventional models—and we outline a future research agenda that emphasizes integrative perspectives, sectoral diversity, and outcomes beyond financial performance.
This study examines how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sought to synchronise international partner relationships through digital means under crisis-driven time compression during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on 29 interviews with New Zealand SME owner-managers and internationalisation experts and using a multi-stage pattern-matching design, we analyse how differences in digital conditions shape relationship-level synchronisation outcomes when physical interaction becomes constrained. The analysis identifies two conditioning dimensions: digital distance in opportunities, which refers to capability misalignment between SMEs and key partners, and digital distance in markets, which refers to differences in platform ecosystems, digital norms, and communication practices across countries. Their interaction yields four pathways of network synchronisation under crisis conditions: rapid re-synchronisation in digitally aligned markets; partial synchronisation via partner upskilling in familiar markets; co-created synchronisation in digitally divergent markets; and desynchronisation with selective retreat under dual digital friction. Across these pathways, trust and digital cultural competence moderate firms’ ability to transfer routines, experiment jointly, and sustain temporal alignment. This study contributes to SME internationalisation research by developing a mid-range process explanation of digital network synchronisation under crisis-driven time compression, showing how initial digital conditions shape adaptive synchronisation responses and, in turn, differentiated synchronisation outcomes.
Local communities have become increasingly influential in determining the operating conditions of multinational mining firms, particularly in emerging markets where formal governance is uneven. To understand how firms navigate these challenges, we draw on the social license to operate (SLO) concept to examine how SLO strategies shape company–community relations and how firms design and sustain SLOs under institutional complexity. Using comparative case studies of three large mines in Botswana, Indonesia, and Peru, we find that deeper, participatory SLO strategies substantially reduce conflict. However, these outcomes depend on contextual factors: state capability, government part ownership of the mine, and the size and ethnic composition of the surrounding community. Mines embedded in high-capability states, with partial government ownership and smaller, more homogeneous communities, demonstrate more durable SLOs. Our analysis also shows that SLOs and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are distinct ideas. While CSR builds broad reputational legitimacy, only SLOs directly reduce community-level conflict through sustained local engagement. These findings contribute to international business research by highlighting the contextual conditions under which SLO strategies are most effective and by clarifying how firms secure legitimacy in institutionally complex settings.
This study examines the foundational role of Europe in international business (IB) scholarship. To assess the current state of knowledge and extend its intellectual boundaries, we conduct a systematic review of 115 articles published between 2000 and 2023 across 13 leading IB journals. Combining bibliometric and qualitative content analyses, we identify major research trajectories, theoretical developments, and practical insights related to Europe-focused IB research. The review synthesizes findings across five central thematic domains: (1) internationalization, (2) corporate social responsibility practices of European firms, (3) location strategies in the European context, (4) multinational enterprise partnership dynamics, and (5) knowledge transfer within and across European MNEs (EuMNEs). These clusters are examined through the lens of institutional embeddedness and strategic divergence, highlighting how EuMNEs manage both regulatory harmonization and persistent institutional diversity across intra- and interregional contexts. Beyond synthesizing extant research, the study adopts a problematizing review perspective to critically interrogate dominant explanatory templates and to surface the assumptions underpinning Europe-related IB theorizing. Through keyword co-occurrence analysis, we further highlight promising avenues for future research, including: (1) global R D and innovation strategies, (2) geopolitical risks and informal institutions, (3) subsidiary autonomy and entrepreneurship, (4) strategic divergence among MNEs, and (5) cultural frictions in emerging markets. By embedding both the synthesis and critical interrogation within a comparative and context-sensitive perspective, the review repositions Europe not merely as a geographic setting but as a multilayered institutional space that serves as a conceptual lens for rethinking foundational assumptions in IB theory. In doing so, the study provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of European-focused IB research and outlines a roadmap for future research on this important topic.
Corporate reputation constitutes a crucial intangible asset for preserving and boosting a firm’s competitiveness in the global market. A rich body of research has examined the construct of corporate reputation, and its role in international business (IB) has been growing over time. However, research on corporate reputation in the context of IB has not yet been reviewed and synthesized to identify the intricate intellectual developments of this domain’s literature. To address this lacuna, the current study uses bibliometric analysis, coupled with a systematic literature review, to map and summarize findings from 109 publications focusing on this research context, published between 1986 and 2025 in eight prestigious IB journals. In addition, content analysis synthesizes the antecedents and outcomes of corporate reputation and provides a conceptual framework that portrays the knowledge structure of this field of research. Bibliographic coupling uncovers five key research clusters. This study recommends an agenda for continued research in this area.
In many firms around the world, foreign owners have become an influential investor group. Foreign owners often differ from domestic owners and potentially impact firm outcomes in different ways than domestic owners. In the present paper, we examine whether and how foreign ownership is associated with firms’ long-term orientation, a central element of firms’ dominant logic and strategic orientation. We use arguments from stewardship theory to develop our hypotheses on a positive relationship between foreign ownership and long-term orientation. Our empirical analysis of panel data from European firms provides support for this predicted association. To offer a more nuanced perspective, we further incorporate insights from institutional theory to account for the heterogeneity among foreign investors. Our data reveals that investors from institutionally similar countries are more strongly linked to firms’ long-term orientation than those from institutionally distant countries. Moreover, we ascertain that foreign passive investors rather than foreign active shareholders promote long-term orientation in their investees. By highlighting the importance of institutional origin and investor type, this study contributes to the nascent but growing literature on foreign ownership and its impact on firms. Our findings suggest that foreign ownership positively fosters long-term orientation, but it does so in a non-uniform way as its effects depend critically on boundary conditions.
The Future of Work (FOW) has evolved from a question of jobs and skills into a fundamental international business organizing challenge. Digitalization, artificial intelligence, automation, platform intermediation, and geopolitical fragmentation jointly reshape how work is decomposed, allocated, coordinated, and governed across borders. These shifts pressure key assumptions in canonical theories of the multinational enterprise (MNE)—especially the primacy of hierarchical internalization and the durability of location-based arbitrage—without rendering their core insights obsolete. Anchored in internalization theory and internationalization process models augmented by research on ecosystems, dynamic capabilities, global virtual work, and algorithmic control, this paper introduces an Adaptive Ecosystem Orchestration (AEO) framework that conceptualizes the MNE as an orchestrator of cross-border work systems spanning employees, contractors, AI-enabled processes, and external ecosystem partners. The AEO framework specifies interrelated organizing elements linking MNE work-system configurations to the Theory of the MNE under conditions of technology disruption, workforce transformation, and institutional and geopolitical reconfiguration. It develops testable propositions, outlines research designs, and suggests measurable indicators to support empirical work.
Multinational enterprises from emerging markets (EM MNEs), acting as latecomers in global markets, strategically leverage their networks to facilitate their international expansion. As a rapidly developing phenomenon, the findings and theoretical foundations of EM MNE networks remain fragmented and inconsistent. Through a systematic review of the literature, we examined research themes across networks, internationalisation, and EM MNEs to identify key theoretical perspectives and how EM MNE network research engages with established internationalisation theories. We analysed papers published between 2000 and 2025 to include high-quality academic research and assess the current state of the art. Our review provides a comprehensive framework encompassing the analytical levels, theoretical perspectives, and network dynamics present in current research. This is the first systematic review to examine the network mechanisms behind EM MNE internationalisation. It pays particular attention to how network mechanisms identified in EM MNE studies engage with, extend, and challenge established theories developed in advanced economies contexts. It also encourages managers and policymakers in emerging economies to strategically deploy collaborative networks to maximise their efforts.
We investigate, in the Chinese context, how top executives respond to innovation quality shortfalls (IQS) by adjusting the scope of overseas R D. Given that relational culture, as an informal institutional element, profoundly shapes this collective decision-making process, we further incorporate the moderating effects of clan culture and merchant guild culture. Integrating the behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF) with institutional theory, we argue that IQS triggers cross-border innovation search, prompting executives to expand the firm’s overseas R D scope as a solution. However, in regions where clan culture and merchant guild culture are deeply rooted, the positive effect of IQS on overseas R D scope is weakened. Using an unbalanced panel dataset of Chinese publicly listed private firms, our empirical analysis provides strong support for these hypotheses. In addition, the heterogeneity analysis reveals that the positive effect of IQS on firms’ overseas R D scope is more pronounced when the TMT possesses an R D background or overseas background. By focusing on the relationship between IQS and overseas R D scope and incorporating the moderating effects of relational culture, this study offers new theoretical insights and empirical evidence to the literature on BTOF and overseas R D.
This study analyses how international expansion, both within the home region (regional exports) and outside the home region (global exports), affects the performance of emerging-market exporters. In addition, it examines the moderating effect of the level of development of destination countries and the dynamism of the industry in the home country (home-industry dynamism). Using panel data from 2174 Colombian firms during the period 2017–2021 we found that both expansions, within and outside the home region, positively affected performance. Additionally, the relationship between regional exports and performance was positively moderated by lower development levels of the destination countries within the home region. Contrary to expectations, we found no moderating effect from industry dynamism or the level of development of countries outside the home region. These results challenge traditional views on internationalisation and offer new insights for firms in emerging markets.
