This study examines the evolution, typology, and effectiveness of economic sanctions in international business across five centuries of geopolitical change. Using a phenomenon-driven research (PDR) design combined with a realist historical approach, it synthesizes established categories of sanctions-ideological, political, national security, and economic-while tracing how their relative prominence has shifted over time. To account for earlier economic restrictions such as mercantilist trade policies, we introduce the concept of proto-sanctions, positioned on a continuum between domestic protectionist measures and international coercive instruments. This framing highlights both continuity and transformation in the use of sanctions, from serving as triggers and supplements of war to becoming substitutes for direct military action. To illustrate these dynamics, we develop two case studies of U.S. sanctions against Russia and China, which reveal recurring patterns in motives and measures across distinct historical periods. The study also underscores the increasing role of countermeasures, offering new insights into sanctions as dynamic instruments of statecraft and business disruption in a globalized economy.

This research aims to explore the connection between the evolution of economic sanctions and industrial revolutions. Employing a phenomenon-­based research approach and a realist historical perspective, this paper investigates the dynamics and mechanisms underpinning the increasing number and sophistication of sanctions throughout successive industrial revolutions. We define economic sanctions as commercial and/or financial penalties applied by states or organizations against foreign states, public or private organizations, groups, or individuals. Our main proposition is: the number and character of sanctions correlate with industrial revolutions – ​radical transformations in technological systems and civil society. We argue that the evolution of sanctions from supplements to substitutes for warfare is linked to two major factors: 1) the shifting motives behind sanctions, particularly the increasing emphasis on maintaining national competitiveness; 2) the transformation in sanction techniques – ​from total trade and financial embargoes during Industrial Revolutions 1.0 and 2.0 to targeted “smart sanctions” focusing on critical and vulnerable entities during Industrial Revolution 3.0. Both factors are strongly related with the development of technological systems in developed countries, that also play the major role as sanctioning countries. We anticipate that these trends toward more sophisticated and targeted sanctions will intensify during the forthcoming Industrial Revolutions 4.0 and 5.0, even as the overall frequency of situations requiring sanctions is expected to decline.

This study examines the correspondence between the immediate reaction of foreign manufacturing corporations in Russia after the strong sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine military conflict in March 2022 and the level of concordance between initial foretelling of strategic actions and actual strategic actions developed by subsidiaries of corporations from sanctioning countries in 2022-2023. We found that industry and the size of a subsidiary play an important role in making decisions about an oversee divestment.

This study examines the reaction of foreign manufacturing corporations in Russia to the strong sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia in the first months after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine military conflict in March 2022. While the majority of Western companies announced different types of changes in their operations in Russia, a significant share of industrial corporations did not publicly announce planned changes in their operations. Notably, less than 17 percent of corporations that opened new factories in Russia between 2012 and 2019 announced self-restrictions of operations or an intention to divest their Russian assets.

Purpose This paper aims to present the impact of several likely trajectories of development for global industries, namely, re-shoring, regionalization, diversification and replication, recently identified by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, on the evolution of the corporate parenting styles (CPSs) of multinational corporations (MNCs). Design/methodology/approach This viewpoint presents a novel view of CPSs as a set of relationships between the corporate centers of MNCs and their subsidiaries, including domestic ones, identifies the most likely connections between anticipated trajectories of development in global industries and the evolution of CPSs of MNCs and outlines directions for further research. Findings The anticipated trajectories of the development of global industries may result in changes in prevailing CPSs and lead to the proliferation of previously less common parenting styles. Although many of the anticipated changes in CPSs may be pursued by corporate headquarters (CHQs), a combination of powerful subsidiaries putting bottom-up pressure on CHQs and powerful owners capable of imposing requirements on top management teams and generating top-down pressure may affect the CPSs used by corporations. Originality/value The authors connect possible trajectories of development for global industries with the evolution of CPSs of MNCs.

We evaluated the performance of the largest Russian subsidiaries of multinational corporations in 2020-2024. For this, we explored the 'Forbes 50 Largest Foreign Corporations in Russia' lists for 2020-2024. The 2020 and 2021 lists differed by a few companies. The 2021 and 2022 lists differed by a half, mostly because of the exit from Russia of 16 'super-giants' (global corporations with total revenues above US$ 100 billion) of different industries. Simultaneously, 'Forbes 50 Largest Foreign Corporations in Russia 2023' accommodated almost 20 companies with smaller worldwide sales. In 2023, 13 more companies left 'Forbes 50 Largest Foreign Corporations in Russia' and 13 companies entered this list. Such 'new entrants' to the world of Forbes are from China, Turkey, Belorussia, and several other countries, including the countries that do participate in sanctions against Russia. In general, only 18 companies from the 'Forbes list of foreign companies in Russia 2021' remained in the 'Forbes list of foreign companies in Russia 2024'. The 'Forbes list of foreign companies in Russia 2024' may be considered a list of companies that made a choice to try to continue business in Russia and withstand both the Western sanctions and Russian measures against 'unfriendly countries'.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand communication strategies formed by multinational subsidiaries in a transition economy during disruptive events. The authors develop and test a framework based on political realism and situational crisis communication theory (SCCT). Design/methodology/approach The authors collect and analyze communication statements from multinational subsidiaries located in Russia and made in the first two months (March–April, 2022) of the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Findings This study’s main findings are twofold. First, this study extends SCCT by showing that multinational subsidiaries use communication strategies that go beyond the traditional categories of diminish, rebuild and bolster. In particular, this study identifies so-called “shut the door” and “burning bridges” methods as possible industrial and home country contingent communication strategies. Second, this study shows that possession of a political realism lens provides us with powerful communication strategies made requisite during disruptive events. Practical implications The results provide practical hands-on advice for subsidiary managers on how to communicate effectively and efficiently during disruptive events such as the one described. This study offers novel communication strategies that help to understand the wider implications for managers in both home and host countries. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first papers to apply SCCT and political realism to a current disruptive event for multinational enterprises, i.e. the ongoing Russia–Ukraine conflict. In that context, this study expands both perspectives by highlighting their complementarities and their conceptual boundaries. The authors can base those insights on two unique and purpose-built databases of multinational subsidiary characteristics in Russia-proper.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how the attitudes of Russian managers are affected by personal attributes, environmental conditions and also cognitive processes. Design/methodology/approach Based on social cognitive theory, the authors developed hypotheses and tested them against data collected from 173 Russian managers via an online survey. A linear regression analysis revealed several determinants of ethical attitudes within the Russian context. Findings The findings suggest that personal values (i.e. political orientation), environmental conditions (i.e. hierarchical level, ownership – state-owned versus private – of the current employer, industry in which a manager works) as well as cognitive processes (i.e. the presence (absence) of multilingualism at the workplace) strongly affect ethical attitudes of Russian managers in several issues related to both job ethics (relations inside the organization) and business ethics (relations outside the organization). Practical implications Revealing a positive effect of multilingualism as cognitive process on managers' ethical attitudes, this study calls for incorporating a second lingua franca, for example, English, within the working context. Originality/value The study provides an in-depth investigation of the determinants of ethical attitudes in Russia. Conducting a single-country study, the authors are able to reveal locally meaningful determinants that may otherwise be overlooked.

Purpose This study aims to describe how large corporations, facing digitalization and sustainability, can use established models and theories to find appropriate organizations design for these “new” challenges. Design/methodology/approach The information processing perspective presented by Jay Galbraith (Galbraith, 1974) can be an appropriate platform to analyze organizational requirements, also in new complex and uncertain situation. The authors use the Miles and Snow (1978) typology to explain how traditional design can be appropriate in the new world of sustainability and digitalization. Findings With the new types of business models, the design should have a holistic view. The design should be split into three levels: the corporation as a whole, the large business units and the operating units. Each of these units can follow traditional organizational forms with an internal market-based coordination combined with digital platform systems. Originality/value Both large and small corporations now face big challenges related to adapting their business models, managerial processes and organizational structures for digitalization and sustainability. Digitalization and sustainability combine the various pieces of the corporation into a tightly coupled network with a real time coordination of activities making it difficult to obtain local adjustments without disturbing the whole. At the same time, there is a strong need for both being locally agile with a focus on effectiveness and at the same time being very efficient. The literature calls for new organizational forms to handle this situation. The authors show that “old” designs properly coordinated can be an appropriate design as well.

Purpose This paper aims to outline the current and future influence of digitalization on the corporate parenting styles (CPSs) of multinational corporations (MNCs). Design/methodology/approach The authors used conceptual modeling in this study. Findings The authors identified five types of CPSs (Hypnos, Cronus, Rhea, Zeus and Athena). The overall impact of digitalization on CPSs is related to new, formidable opportunities for decreasing costs and increasing the efficiency of the intra-corporate transfer of knowledge and talent. Furthermore, digitalization leads to greater tightness in subsidiaries’ performance targets and greater intensity of control over subsidiaries’ activities, lower degrees of subsidiary autonomy and lower level of trust between the corporate headquarters and subsidiary managers. These effects endanger the existence of two CPSs (Hypnos and Athena) and significant changes for the other three CPSs. Practical implications Digitalization may lead to more homogeneous corporations, with the lower variety of CPSs and the greater centralization of decision-making in corporate and regional headquarters and stronger control on operations and performance of subsidiaries. Increased opportunities of a horizontal value transfer (knowledge) within the corporation will present an additional competitive advantage of subsidiaries of MNCs. The increased ability and willingness of corporate and regional headquarters of value appropriation from subsidiaries in different forms (profit, revenues, knowledge and talent) will force subsidiaries to use that additional competitive advantage to become more aggressive competitors in local and global markets. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt in the academic literature to predict the mutation of CPSs of MNCs under the impact of digitalization.

The aim of this study is to depict the performance of Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of multinational corporations during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a unique handcrafted database of financial reports from 259 subsidiaries for 2019 and 2020, we retraced three indicators of business robustness: the dynamics of revenues, positive profitability, and the level of financial solvency. Most of the studied subsidiaries (85%) were able to withstand the crisis and maintain satisfactory financial solvency. Revenues decreased in 2020 to 40% of the studied subsidiaries, and the share of loss-making subsidiaries reached 31%. However, more than 40% of the studied subsidiaries achieved both an increase in revenues and positive profitability of sales in 2020. In this respect we may assess the level of 'ownership advantage' of multinational corporations regarding assisting their subsidiaries to achieve different elements of business robustness during the pandemic.

This article presents the problems of designing the strategies of western companies that continue to own Russian assets, and identifies the main dilemmas of the strategic choice facing these companies: 1) to leave Russia or stay in Russia; 2) to leave as quickly as possible or profitable as possible; 4) if a decision is made to expand the business, then – ​do it with reduction of the share of innovation expenses in the gross profit (revenues) of the Russian division or with an increase of the share of innovation expenses in the gross profit (revenue). The article presents the difficulties of choosing between these options. The main difficulties related to the fact that criteria of decisions are in different domains (political and economic ones) and standard quantitative methods of analysis in many cases turn out to be unacceptable, since there is no single metric for comparing the consequences of decisions. In addition, the interests of decision-making actors are extremely heterogeneous, and the speed of the situation’s change exceeds the speed of decision-making procedures usual for international corporations. The article presents the main types of behavioral models of companies in high uncertainty, multidirectional pressure from various actors of the strategic process and the rapidly changing environment. The trends in the analysis of the behavior of companies under uncertainty that were developed in the literature are mainly associated with economic discourses. Situations of massive sanctions by western countries against Russia introduced political factors into the field of management studies. At the same time, the behavioral aspects of decision-making remain out of sight of most authors. We propose to use Kahneman's and Tversky's «prospect theory» approaches to analyze the situation, which helps to find an explanation for the observed phenomena and put forward hypotheses regarding the future behavior of western companies that are going to continue Russian assets.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address issues related to better identification of strategic orientation of the firm and the impact of strategic orientation on sustainable development of the firm. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents an overview of the existing literature on strategic orientation of the firm, reexamines the major findings and fills the discovered gaps in theoretical constructs and models by new models. Findings In this paper, a new model of strategic orientation is proposed based on the type of relationship of aa firm with its stakeholders who are considered as suppliers of key strategic resources. Relationship between the firm and its particular stakeholder is presented on an input-output like scheme and the variants of the position of the firm towards all its stakeholders serve as foundation for determining strategic orientation types. Next, the authors present orientation of firms of different strategic types towards sustainability. Research limitations/implications The paper outlines several novels problems for strategic management and organizational design theory. Originality/value The paper provides a novel treatment of strategic orientation and particular strategic types.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate strategic tensions arising between corporate headquarters (CHQs) and a subsidiary during disruptive events. Design/methodology/approachThis study adapted a case study approach combined with action research elements in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The focal company is an US information technology (IT)-company operating in Russia. FindingsDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, some sectors and industries, such as the IT sector, received a unique impetus for development. At the same time, our subsidiary started to develop and implement a set of measures to explore and exploit nascent business opportunities without waiting for the formal approval of "subsidiary initiatives" by the CHQs or regional headquarters (RHQs). The subsidiary was able to postpone the implementation of corporate-wide projects which it saw as not well suited to the host country market at that time. Originality/valueThis study presents subsidiaries not as passive receivers of orders from CHQs or RHQs, but as active partners in the corporate management hierarchy capable to mold effectively certain corporate-wide initiatives and policies.

PurposeThis study aimed to reveal the policies applied to determine the total expenses for managerial remuneration in manufacturing subsidiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe author analyzed the annual financial reports of Russian manufacturing subsidiaries containing data on managerial remuneration and compared the dynamics of annual revenues and the amount of annual managerial remuneration.FindingsThe author identified four types of policies regarding the total amount of managerial remuneration. In a minority of cases, when revenues decreased, the share of the total amount of managerial remuneration in total revenues also decreased. The author also observed “payment for efforts”; although revenues decreased in 2020, the share of the total amount of managerial remuneration in total revenues increased. In 17% of cases, when revenue increased, the share of the total amount of managerial remuneration in revenue also increased. Finally, in 50% of cases, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a pretext to generate savings from the reduction in the total amount of managerial remuneration despite the increase in revenues.Originality/valueThis is the first study to use real financial reports to evaluate the dynamics of the total amount and share of managerial remuneration in revenue during a crisis.

Purpose: This paper aims to detail the actions of the Russian subsidiary of a multinational IT company, during the COVID–19 pandemic, aimed toward the exploration and exploitation of unexpected business opportunities. It depicts the strategic and tactical actions of the subsidiary and corporate initiatives during the pandemic, revealing tensions between the subsidiary and its corporate parent on implementation of each’s initiatives. Design/methodology/approach: A case study is presented, based on action research, using internal documents from the company under consideration, participation in various working meetings, meetings with customers and interviews with subsidiary management. Findings: The strategic actions implemented by the subsidiary during the pandemic exemplify strategic agility, i.e. a set of activities carried out by a company that create value in a turbulent and unpredictable environment which in turn require systematic variations in specific processes, products and structures. Some of those variations included the unauthorized amendment of internal corporate rules, leading to tensions between the subsidiary and parent company. This case illustrates that such parent-subsidiary tensions are an inevitable element of achieving agility at the subsidiary level, especially during rapid and unpredictable changes in the business environment. Research limitations/implications: This study presents the flow of events in one multinational corporation subsidiary. However, the authors speculate that similar situations (subsidiary actions exploiting emergent business opportunities and which have been restricted by rigid internal corporate rules and regulations and low receptivity from corporate headquarters) occurred in many multinational corporation subsidiaries, aiming to explore and exploit nascent business opportunities in local markets during the pandemic. Practical implications: The study confirms the necessity for the review of the functioning of the corporate immune system of large multinational corporations to allow more subsidiary initiatives to flourish than before the pandemic. Originality/value: The paper presents a case of strategic agility at subsidiary level during the pandemic. It also uncovers the black-boxing managerial decision-making processes in headquarters-subsidiary relations during the extreme turbulence of business environment. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose This paper aims to explore the phenomenon of ribbon-cutting ceremonies for new overseas subsidiaries and demonstrates the possibility of modifying such ceremonies to place greater emphasis on intra-organizational communications. Design/methodology/approach This is a careful study of 200 videos on 73 ribbon-cutting ceremonies in Russia between 2012 and 2018. Findings Under the current prevalent design, ribbon-cutting ceremonies mostly entail inter-organizational communication, i.e. communication between foreign investors and representatives of the authorities of the host country. Meanwhile, in addition to the standard ribbon-cutting ceremonies, it is observed that several videos on intra-organizational communication, i.e. pseudoformal meetings between the team from the corporate headquarters and employees of a newly built factory. During such meetings, top corporate executives express the importance of the factory vis-à-vis the future of the whole corporation, state their expectations for the further development of the factory’s production facilities, postulate the desired working atmosphere in the factory and appeal for the commitment and assistance of the employees in safeguarding the future of the investment. Originality/value The findings provide a basis for a broader discussion on the role of ribbon-cutting ceremonies as staged large-scale events organized by firms to articulate, highlight, disseminate, rationalize, as well as mobilize internal and external support for their strategy.

This article retraces the development of Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of Western multinational corporations from the late 1980s until 2019. Using secondary sources and a unique handcrafted database on significant extensions of manufacturing facilities of Western multinational corporations in Russia during 2012–2018, we present the position of Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of Western multinational corporations before and after the beginning of sanctions. We also indicate the major strategic challenges that they currently face, including the necessity to maintain dual loyalty (to home country and host country authorities), manage the deteriorating quality of business regulations in Russia, and overcome the increasing shortage of qualified personnel at all levels. The data on the opening of new facilities in 2017–2018 reveal that such issues impede but cannot stop the quantitative development of foreign-owned Russian manufacturing facilities. At the same time, saving on managerial expenses and low “investments in non-current assets” of the established manufacturing subsidiaries may break down “the innovation engine” assembled in many Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of Western multinational corporations and bring them into the periphery of their corporate parents, where the attention and resources from the corporate center are lacking.

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