ABSTRACT Research on post‐merger integration typically assumes that acquirers enter with baseline legitimacy and authority, a condition that rarely holds in emerging‐economy firm (EEF) acquisitions of developed‐economy firms (DEFs). Country‐of‐origin stereotypes and institutional distance generate credibility deficits that shape how employees evaluate acquirer leadership. Re‐centering the Ohio State dimensions of initiating structure and consideration, this paper develops a configurational framework of early PMI under fragile legitimacy. We theorize that a structure‐first stance sends credible competence signals to skeptical employees, while early relational gestures are read as impression management. Three propositions develop this argument: structure‐first leadership outperforms alternatives under fragile acquirer legitimacy, with the advantage amplified by power distance gaps and formal institutional distance. The paper contributes a credibility‐first account of early integration leadership, an explanation of why relational leadership backfires under fragile legitimacy, and an explanation of how Structure simultaneously coordinates tasks and signals institutional conformity to skeptical employees.
ABSTRACT This article advances the understanding of employee performance by unraveling the relationship between high‐performance human resource management practices (HPHRMP) and employee performance. Data were obtained from 510 bank employees across 25 banks operating in Jordan. A sequential mediation model was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping. An initial model assessed the pattern of associations for the complete bundle of HPHRMP. Subsequently, separate SEM models evaluate the associations for each individual practice. The findings partially support the hypothesized positive relationship between HPHRMP and employee performance, with continuance commitment and readiness for change operating as intermediate variables. However, the results reveal that in certain developing contexts, some HPHRMP may be perceived as unsupportive, triggering adverse social exchange mechanisms that undermine employee performance. The performed analysis yields valuable insights into how individual practices and practice bundles are associated with employee performance, continuance commitment, and readiness for change in the studied context, while also considering the intermediate role of readiness for change and continuance commitment. From a theoretical perspective, this study extends the ability–motivation–opportunity (AMO) framework and social exchange theory in explaining the outcomes of HPHRMP, suggesting that some inconsistencies in prior AMO‐based findings may be attributable to contextual contingencies. The use of side‐bet theory to understand the relationship between HPHRMP, continuance commitment, and employee performance is another theoretical contribution of this work, while from a practical standpoint, the results indicate that when managers face uncertainty regarding integrative versus additive approaches, implementing a comprehensive bundle of practices is not necessarily optimal.
ABSTRACT Artificial intelligence (AI) presents both new opportunities and challenges for corporate internationalization. By focusing on three key dimensions of internationalization, namely scope, speed, and rhythm, this article seeks to reveal how AI technologies reshape corporate transnational business models and pathways. The findings indicate that AI adoption significantly enhances corporate internationalization level, evident in expanded scope, accelerated speed, and a more regular rhythm. Furthermore, a broad international background is identified as a positive moderator, strengthening the AI‐internationalization relationship. This article elucidates the intrinsic mechanisms through which AI reshapes corporate internationalization pathways by altering scope, speed, and rhythm, while specifically highlighting the critical moderating role of overseas backgrounds on boards. This article recommends that companies adopt AI as a core strategic focus, optimize their board governance structures to maximize the benefits of technology, and thereby forge new competitive advantages in the process of globalization.
ABSTRACT This study investigates the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance and bank financial stability within the context of the green finance transition. Utilizing an unbalanced panel dataset of 251 banks across 56 countries, observed over the period 2009–2024, we analyze how this relationship is moderated by the share of green financial products in the bank's total product portfolio and by the quality of the institutional environment, as captured by the Rule of Law (RoL) index. Our estimations reveal that while ESG is generally positively associated with bank stability, measured by the Z ‐Score, this stabilizing effect weakens as the share of green products increases, confirming a substitution effect. This mechanism is moderated by the institutional environment. In developed economies, the RoL acts as a substitute for sustainability strategies, reducing their marginal stabilizing impact. In contrast, in emerging economies it functions as a complement, strengthening the joint stabilizing impact of ESG performance and green financial products. These findings have important implications for global banking regulators and managers, emphasizing the need to make strategic trade‐offs between sustainability ambitions and financial resilience while accounting for cross‐country differences in institutional quality.
ABSTRACT Financial markets are increasingly exposed to climate‐transition shocks arising from decarbonisation policies, energy supply disruptions, and shifts in energy production. While traditional safe‐haven assets such as gold and sovereign bonds hedge monetary and financial crises, their effectiveness against transition‐related risks, particularly in emerging economies, remains unclear. This study examines whether green equity indices in an emerging market context provide alternative protection during periods of market stress. Using time‐varying dependence analysis across major global and regional crises, including the COVID‐19 pandemic and the Russia‐Ukraine conflict, we show that green assets behave differently from conventional safe havens. Green indices exhibit weak and regime‐dependent relationships with gold, sovereign bonds, oil, and natural gas, while maintaining a strong and persistent relationship with the S&P Green Bond Index, highlighting the increasing integration of sustainable financial markets. We further identify significant spillovers from global green bond markets, indicating increasing integration of domestic and international sustainable finance. Portfolio evidence suggests that green‐focused allocations incorporating the S&P Green Bond Index offer superior risk‐reduction benefits and more stable portfolio performance than traditional alternatives. The findings indicate that green financial assets provide meaningful diversification benefits and portfolio resilience, particularly in emerging financial markets undergoing energy transition, with important implications for investors, regulators, and climate‐policy design.
ABSTRACT The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology networks has opened up new avenues for businesses to establish technological connections and achieve value co‐creation. This study analyzes 2817 listed enterprises in China's strategic emerging industries from 2015 to 2023. Using fixed‐effects and threshold models, this study empirically examines how AI technology network structural characteristics influence enterprise value co‐creation and further identifies the threshold effects of innovation openness. The findings show that: (1) Artificial intelligence technology network centrality has a positive effect on enterprise value co‐creation, whereas the network clustering coefficient has a negative effect. (2) Innovation openness breadth and depth exhibit a single‐threshold effect in the relationship between centrality and value co‐creation; beyond their respective thresholds, the positive effect of centrality increases significantly. (3) Innovation openness breadth and depth exhibit a dual‐threshold effect in the relationship between the clustering coefficient and value co‐creation. As innovation openness increases, this relationship shifts from inhibitory to promotive, forming a U‐shaped pattern. This study expands the research on the relationship between artificial intelligence technology network structures and enterprise value co‐creation by revealing the dynamic interplay between network attributes and enterprise value‐co‐creation activities. It provides theoretical foundations and practical implications for enterprises aiming to optimize artificial intelligence technology deployment and improve innovation performance.
ABSTRACT This study investigates the bidirectional relationship between insider ownership and real earnings management (REM), focusing on whether insider ownership acts as a governance mechanism to constrain REM or facilitates managerial entrenchment. It further examines the roles of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and information asymmetry as threshold mechanisms that shape this relationship, with a particular emphasis on family and nonfamily firms across selected African economies. Using panel data from 271 nonfinancial firms listed in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe between 2012 and 2023, the study employs a two‐step system Generalized Method of Moments (sys‐GMM) to address endogeneity. Additionally, a dynamic panel threshold model is used to capture nonlinear effects of CSR and information asymmetry. The results support the dual‐role hypothesis, showing that insider ownership significantly facilitates real earnings management in family firms but constrains it in nonfamily firms, consistent with entrenchment and alignment effects, respectively. Conversely, real earnings management negatively influences insider ownership across all firm types, with stronger effects observed in nonfamily firms. Both CSR and information asymmetry exhibit significant threshold effects. Specifically, above the CSR threshold, insider ownership constrains real earnings management in nonfamily firms, while under high information asymmetry, insider ownership exacerbates real earnings management in nonfamily firms but mitigates it in family firms. This study is among the first to explore the two‐way interaction between insider ownership and REM within an African multicountry context, while incorporating dynamic threshold effects of CSR and information asymmetry. It offers novel insights into governance dynamics in emerging markets.
This work aims to provide theoretical and practical insights into coping with expatriation challenges. We show that both acceptance and action (problem-solving) are needed, to manage different aspects of expatriate life. These two coping strategies are complementary and, to be beneficial, need to be applied selectively. More specifically, acceptance is required in domains that cannot be changed-particularly for adjusting to local conditions-whereas action (problem-solving) is more relevant for adjusting to work conditions and relationships with locals. Quantitative analyses based on a sample of 759 expatriates also show that using these coping strategies in domains other than those described above (e.g., relying on acceptance to deal with work-related challenges) is not really effective. This work contributes to a better understanding of why adjustment to a foreign country is challenging.
Local managers with high proficiency in English are valuable resources for foreign subsidiaries of multinational enterprises, as they help mitigate language barriers between expatriate and local managers. However, such linguistically competent local managers often leave foreign subsidiaries within the first few years of employment. This study investigates why early turnover occurs among these local managers. A questionnaire survey is conducted in Japan, where language barriers are salient due to the limited pool of English-proficient local managers. Probit models are employed to test hypotheses derived from social identity theory and the embeddedness perspective. The results demonstrate that English proficiency facilitates early turnover, whereas communicative competence, defined as the ability to effectively conduct context-specific communication, mitigates it. In addition, local managers who feel closer to expatriate managers than to local colleagues are more likely to leave the foreign subsidiary within a short period. Furthermore, this study reveals a significant three-way interaction among these three factors, indicating that early turnover is more likely when local managers feel closer to expatriate managers and exhibit high levels of both English proficiency and communicative competence. This study provides a theoretical explanation for talent drain in the context of language barriers. It argues that weak and temporary social connections with expatriate managers, combined with the relatively low cost of leaving the subsidiary, increase the likelihood of early turnover among these managers.
This multi-site qualitative study examines how leadership strategies influence the management of sociocultural tensions and organizational performance in multicultural contexts. Drawing on 21 in-depth interviews with top and middle managers across five private-sector organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) within the life sciences, pharmaceuticals, biomedical, and diagnostics sectors, the study explores cross-cultural management practices and leadership competencies. Although leadership, diversity, and sociocultural tensions have been widely studied, their separate evolution has limited understanding of their interplay. By reviewing the existing literature, this study introduces cross-cultural management as a unifying framework for analyzing both tactical and strategic leadership approaches. Thematic analysis revealed limited familiarity with best practices for managing sociocultural tensions and emphasized the pivotal role of leadership in shaping team dynamics and performance. Key competencies identified include adaptability, structured diversity initiatives, trust-building, transparent communication, accountability, and conflict resolution. While inclusive practices were generally endorsed, formal recognition and training in cultural differences and cultural intelligence-aimed at mitigating unconscious bias and stereotyping-were either inconsistent or largely absent, highlighting the need for targeted interventions. Participants recommended ongoing leader development in trust-building, communication, adaptability, and engagement with cross-cultural management challenges, alongside clear policies for bias mitigation. These practices extend Leadership Resonance Theory by incorporating situational awareness and inclusivity, thereby strengthening leaders' ability to promote relational harmony and effectively address sociocultural tensions. The study contributes to cross-cultural leadership research by proposing a multi-level conceptual model linking leadership strategies, sociocultural tension management, and organizational performance. It demonstrates how leadership strategies moderate the effectiveness of cross-cultural initiatives and offers actionable guidance for developing culturally competent leaders, mitigating unconscious bias, and enhancing team and organizational outcomes in diverse workplaces.
Purpose This paper investigates how the decomposition of country-of-origin (COO)-general country image, product image, and country emotions-influences consumers' intentions from a country with different socioeconomic development than the exporting country. We analyze the moderating role of consumer innovativeness, which may enhance the positive effect of COO on behavioral intentions.Design/Methodology/Approach Consumers in Germany completed an online survey on the COO multidimensions regarding Mexican products. Purchase intentions for consumption goods (e.g., tequila, beer, soda, chips, tortillas, and Mexican sauce) were evaluated, with consumer innovativeness and ethnocentrism, gender, and age as moderators. Data was analyzed using structural equation model (SEM) and M-Logit models estimated in STATA.Findings The models validate the relevance of product image and emotions for the country in relation to German consumers' intentions toward Mexican products, revealing that consumer innovativeness and age selectively moderate the cognitive evaluation associated with product image. The most innovative consumers and younger consumers tend to prioritize functional attributes-particularly those related to the quality, reliability, and innovation-when forming their purchase intentions.Originality/Value This research contributes to the study of COO in two significant ways. First, it provides empirical evidence on how COO dimensions affect consumers in a developed country when purchasing products from an emerging economy. Second, it offers new insights into the moderating effects of consumer innovativeness and age on these relationships. Notably, consumer innovativeness emerged as a highly relevant moderator, enhancing the effect of COO on purchase intention.
This research investigates the interplay between legitimacy theory and Society 5.0, focusing on how Industry 4.0 technologies can support sustainable practices within MNEs. Our theoretical model highlights the significance of intra- and inter-societal collaboration, advocating that MNEs engage all stakeholders through transparent sustainability reporting and the adoption of advanced technologies such as Digital Twins and IoT. This approach is crucial for building societal trust and fostering an informed community. We argue that MNEs can proactively align their sustainable development strategies with their corporate objectives by embracing these technologies, thus avoiding implausible deniability and ensuring their actions are legitimate and responsible. Despite the evolving nature of Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 concepts, our study suggests that empirical testing is necessary to validate the model across various industries and cultural contexts, bridging theoretical constructs and practical applications. Moreover, we emphasize the need for MNEs to lead in the circular economy by leveraging Industry 4.0 to enhance societal collaboration and sustainable practices. By addressing the complexities of sustainability dynamics, MNEs can adopt a balanced approach aligned with the principles of Society 5.0. We expect future research to expand our model by exploring additional dimensions of legitimacy theory and Industry 4.0 technologies, thereby supporting MNEs in implementing socially responsible frameworks that benefit society and the environment.
This study examines how international political awareness (IPA) shapes international partner selection (IPS) in an increasingly fractured global economy. Specifically, it investigates the roles of geopolitical knowledge and political and trade activism in translating firms' political awareness into legitimacy-sensitive international partner choices. Drawing on institutional theory and the resource-based view, the study conceptualizes IPA as a dynamic political capability distinct from existing constructs such as political risk management and nonmarket strategy. Survey data were collected from 714 export-import firms operating in Malaysia, Thailand, India, and Bangladesh. The results show that IPA has a strong and positive association with IPS across all country contexts. Geopolitical knowledge mediates the IPA-IPS relationship, indicating that political awareness becomes strategically consequential when firms possess interpretive depth regarding geopolitical disruptions. Political and trade activism further moderates this relationship in India and Bangladesh, where activism pressures are more intense, but not in Malaysia and Thailand-a divergence attributable to differences in institutional maturity, global value chain exposure, and the salience of informal governance mechanisms. This study advances international business research by offering an integrative framework that links political capabilities, geopolitical knowledge, and activism to explain partner selection under conditions of geopolitical fragmentation.
In response to triple-bottom-line sustainability challenges facing the global business environment, organizations increasingly incorporate sustainability principles into their HRM practices, including talent management (TM). This becomes especially challenging for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While sustainable TM has recently gained scholarly prominence, its implementation and outcomes remain underexplored in many organizations including SMEs. Anchored in signaling theory, we address this gap by examining the implementation and outcomes of sustainable TM in a French mission-driven SME operating in the French Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), where economic and social missions are intertwined. Drawing on a qualitative single-case study of a French SSE-SME, based on interviews with key organizational actors, we reveal that sustainable TM evolves as a value-driven, human-centred, and progressively formalized system rooted in everyday practices and ethical commitments. Second, signaling around sustainable TM was evolutionary and incremental in nature, shaped by senior leaders and HR actors. Third, we further found that managerial agency played a key role and was expressed through strategic co-construction, managerial translation, and integrative coordination, connecting ethical purpose with operational practice. Finally, sustainable TM generates multi-layered outcomes spanning people sustainability, HR system coherence, organizational performance, as well as environmental and social outcomes. We discuss the contributions to theory and practice of sustainable TM in SMEs and provide future research directions.
Multi-tier supply chains, especially in developing countries, face complexities that demand efficient and sustainable management. Exporters play a pivotal role as intermediaries connecting importers in developed countries with suppliers (farmers) in developing nations. Importers increasingly pressure exporters to enhance sustainability practices within these supply chains, prompting a critical examination of the role of key account management (KAM) and the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data in achieving sustainability goals. Employing a multiple-case research design, this study examines four wholesalers and exporters actively engaged in sustainability initiatives within multi-tier agriculture supply chains. Through 32 in-depth interviews, qualitative data is collected to explore the dynamic interplay between KAM practices, digital technologies, and sustainability. Findings underscore KAM's multifaceted role in aligning with and meeting sustainability standards, with AI and big data enhancing decision-making capabilities. This research contributes theoretically and practically to the fields of KAM, sustainability, and supply chain management. It highlights KAM's pivotal role in advancing sustainability within multi-tier agriculture supply chains and demonstrates how the adoption of AI and big data enhances decision-making capabilities.
Facing challenges such as the aging population, globalization trends, and intense talent competition, companies operating internationally must develop and implement effective talent management (TM) strategies. In the evolving context of China, assessing TM effectiveness has become vital, particularly for foreign companies competing with local enterprises for talent. This paper contributes to the understanding of how TM effectiveness is conceptualized and assessed in China by examining both what constitutes effective TM and the indicators used to evaluate it. Through an exploratory field study based on 42 interviews conducted across organizational levels in German multinational companies in China, we identify both shared and divergent understandings of TM effectiveness between headquarters and subsidiaries and document a set of TM effectiveness indicators used in practice. Drawing on a contextualized TM perspective and applying a value-based analytical lens, the study shows how TM effectiveness is constructed and evaluated in cross-border contexts and offers insights for Western multinational companies seeking to develop more coherent and context-sensitive approaches for establishing their TM strategies.
The paper explores the evolving relationship between decarbonization strategies, environmental performance within ESG frameworks, and the economic performance of multinational companies in the context of increasing environmental and geopolitical uncertainty. Since the early 2000s, there has been a growing convergence towards greener and more sustainable business models, including the sectors of finance and banking. However, the recent technological transformation and geopolitical tensions pose challenges to the green transition, affecting its economic feasibility and environmental effectiveness. We adopt a risk-management perspective and argue that aggregate ESG scores may obscure the financial implications of environmental behavior. Using a multi-stage modeling approach-combining a preliminary dynamic framework with principal component analysis and efficiency benchmarking (DEA)-we test whether improvements in environmental performance translate into improved revenue growth in 16 multinational firms (2015-2023). Results show that even cost-free emissions reductions do not guarantee better economic outcomes, challenging the assumption that E[SG] improvements are necessarily growth-enhancing. Across differential-equations modeling, PCA regressions, DEA benchmarking, and simulated "cost-free" environmental improvements (up to 20%), we do not find evidence that environmental improvements per se raise revenue growth.
This study investigates how embedded knowledge assets influence the strategic choice between greenfield and acquisitive international joint ventures (IJVs). Integrating transaction cost theory with a knowledge-based view, we theorize that establishment mode decisions are driven not only by governance efficiency but also by the need to access and preserve tacit, context-specific partner knowledge. We focus on three forms of embedded assets held by local firms-cluster-specific knowledge, familiness, and product-specific knowledge-and argue that their non-tradable and non-replicable nature increases the attractiveness of acquisitive IJVs. Using a dataset of 355 foreign market entries by firms from 31 countries into Italy over a 10-year period (2005-2015), our findings show that multinational enterprises are significantly more likely to choose acquisitive IJVs when the local partner's assets are deeply embedded and difficult to transfer or replicate into a newly created entity. Specifically, tacit knowledge and networks within industrial clusters, family firms' specific assets, and operational expertise tied to product-specific knowledge are all associated with a lower likelihood of choosing greenfield IJVs. These results contribute to establishment mode research by demonstrating that embedded knowledge is a critical determinant of IJV formation and by offering an integrated framework for understanding governance choices in IJVs.
This study examines how media coverage nonlinearly influences the relationship between green innovation and stock risk in China. We suggest that while moderate media attention supports green innovation as a credible ethical signal, reducing stock risk, excessive coverage causes "greenwashing fatigue," investor skepticism, and information overload. Analyzing 9927 firm-year observations, we discover an inverted U-shaped effect: media initially enhance innovation's risk-reducing benefits, but beyond a certain point, they diminish or negate them. Our findings contribute to signaling theory and provide important insights into the ethical communication of sustainability, emphasizing the dangers of media saturation in an era acutely aware of greenwashing.
