CSR as Hedging Against Institutional Transition Risk: Corporate Philanthropy After the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan

Administrative Science Quarterly · 2025-01-16 · 10 citations

Firms with political connections to a regime with an authoritarian history face a dilemma when the regime undergoes a democratic transition. Such connections provide an essential competitive advantage when the regime is in power but become a liability when an institutional transition brings democratic change. This study theorizes that when mass protests expose a regime’s distorted policies favoring elites over others and signal a high probability of regime turnover, firms may hedge against the risks associated with their political connections by engaging in philanthropy. We further contend that this effect is stronger for firms located in regions characterized by the rise of an opposing political party or a strong civil society. We find support for our theory in Taiwan’s 2014 Sunflower Movement. Our article reveals a strategy that firms adopt to survive democratic transitions and thus contributes to research on how firms use non-market strategies to adapt to institutional changes. Our research also shows that strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) can substitute for corporate political activity or compensate for its limitations, and it expands research on the signaling function of social movements from public to private politics.

BUSINESS COLLECTIVE ACTION: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW AND FRAMEWORK

SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

The Data Frontier: Expanding Empirical Horizons in Chinese Management Research

Management and Organization Review · 2025-10-01

Abstract This editorial examines the empirical foundations of Chinese management research through an analysis of data sources and research designs in all empirical papers published in Management and Organization Review (MOR) over the past five years. Our review shows that 53.2% of studies rely on archival or secondary data, with 37% of quantitative studies focusing on publicly listed firms. While established datasets provide consistency and comparability, their prevalence may limit opportunities to explore China’s diverse organizational ecosystem. We identify three promising avenues for advancing the field: (1) expanding empirical attention to include a wider variety of organizational forms, (2) leveraging emerging computational methods, digital trace data, and AI-enabled technologies, and (3) recognizing the development of novel datasets as valuable scholarly contributions in their own right. We also examine how recent regulatory developments are creating new considerations for research design while reinforcing the value of collaborative approaches between international and Chinese scholars. We contend that by embracing methodological pluralism and adapting to evolving data landscapes, management scholars can generate additional novel insights that illuminate the complexity and distinctiveness of Chinese organizational life.

Play the Middle or Side: A Typology of Strategic Responses to Geopolitical Tension

Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

This study examines how multinational enterprises (MNEs) strategically respond to dual legitimacy challenges arising from geopolitical conflicts between their home and host countries. MNEs might encounter legitimacy issues in both host countries, where they may be seen as adversarial economic entities, and home countries, where their operations in hostile nations might be perceived as conflicting with national interests. Using a resource dependence perspective, we develop a two-by-two matrix typology of MNEs' strategic responses based on the level of economic stakes—high and low—in both the host and home countries. Additionally, we consider how MNE salience and the intensity of geopolitical conflict influence their strategic choices. Our study advances international business studies by offering a theoretical framework for understanding how MNEs navigate complex geopolitical tensions.

Managing Geopolitical Tensions: Firm Strategies Under Conflicting Demands

Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

Geopolitics introduces significant challenges for multinational companies (MNCs), shaping strategic decisions in unprecedented ways. This symposium focuses on firms’ performance and response to conflictual demands of various actors, which reshape their institutional environments. While extant research has explored the adverse effects of geopolitics on firm strategies, it often overlooks the complexities arising from such conflicting demands. By integrating theoretical and empirical perspectives, this symposium investigates how MNCs manage competing pressures from multiple stakeholders (e.g. home and host countries) and explores how their investments in third-party countries can capitalize on the rivalries between major global powers. Leaving the Backseat: The Active Role of Multinational Firms in China-US Decoupling Author: Anne Jamison; Copenhagen Business School Author: Harald Puhr; Universität Innsbruck Flying Under the Radar: Host Country Geopolitical Animosity and MNE Strategic Disassociation Author: Joao Albino Pimentel; University of South Carolina Author: Gianni De Bruyn; Author: Grazia D. Santangelo; Copenhagen Business School Contested Inter-Governmental Organizations and Foreign Investment Author: Si (Coco) Cheng; Copenhagen Business School Author: Raffaele Conti; ESSEC Business School Author: Srividya Jandhyala; ESSEC Business School Does it Pay to Take a Stand Abroad? Consumers’ Reactions to MNCs’ Sociopolitical Activism Author: Fangwen Lin; National University of Singapore Author: Ishva Minefee; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Author: Lori Qingyuan Yue; Columbia University in the City of New York

Historical Legacies and Corporate Sociopolitical Activism in Response to BLM 2020

Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

Increasingly, scholars have examined the antecedents and consequences of corporate responses to systemic racism in the United States. We extend research on this topic by theorizing how historical legacies associated with this sociopolitical issue affect firms’ engagement in corporate sociopolitical activism (SPA). Through an analysis of firms’ responses to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in 2020, we find that firms headquartered in counties with strong ties to the historical institution of slavery were less likely to engage in SPA following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN. Moreover, even when firms that were headquartered in such counties engaged in SPA, they were less likely to engage in substantive SPA, particularly in forming collaborative relationships with nongovernmental organizations advocating for racial justice. This study contributes to research on corporate responses to racism by showing not only whether institutional slavery affected firms’ responses but also how it shaped the types of responses that firms selected—a choice that has been overlooked in corporate SPA research. Moreover, this paper answers recent calls to show how history affects organizational outcomes.

Organizational Nationalism

SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

Organizational nationalism

Research in Organizational Behavior · 2025-08-05 · 3 citations

The global rise of nationalism has distorted the neoliberal vision of a borderless world where the nationality of businesses would be rendered obsolete. While nationalism can promote social solidarity and progress, it also has the potential to deepen divisions and fuel conflict—realities that organizations cannot ignore. In this paper, we propose a theory of organizational nationalism, which positions organizations not merely as passive responders to nationalist institutional pressures or geopolitical risks but as active agents in shaping nationalistic beliefs, values, and policies. Through theorizing how organizational nationalism manifests and functions, we offer insights into how organizations harness nationalism to motivate employees, cultivate consumer loyalty, and secure sociopolitical legitimacy, and how such engagement may eventually become an organizational commitment that shapes its nationalist character. This perspective fills a critical void in nationalism research by emphasizing the intermediary role played by organizations between the state and individual levels of nationalism. It also offers a unifying framework for the fragmented literature on nationalism in business, which spans topics from state influence on organizational forms to managing “foreignness” in multinational corporations. We conclude by outlining a research roadmap and promising research methodologies in this area.

Business Collective Action: An Integrative Review and Framework

Journal of Management Studies · 2025-04-21 · 3 citations

Abstract Business collective action (BCA) has long been a topic of interest to management scholars. However, our theoretical understanding of this important phenomenon has been hindered by its fragmented development in the literature. To address this shortcoming, we conduct a comprehensive review of BCA across a wide range of disciplines in management, including corporate political activity, private regulation, strategic management, and organizational institutionalism. Based on this review, we develop an integrative framework that identifies the triggers, outcomes, and internal political arrangements associated with BCA. In doing so, we help develop a common vocabulary that unites different market and non‐market forms of BCA, thus deepening our understanding of the role of business collective action in society.

Taking a stand while abroad? Towards a theory of MNCs’ sociopolitical activism in host countries

Journal of International Business Studies · 2025-02-07 · 4 citations