Surviving populism: A corporate political activity approach in Mexico

Causal mechanisms of COVID-19 disruptive effects on liability of foreignness and the emergence of new firm-specific advantages

“…Accordingly, governments became a significant source of uncertainty in addition to the institutional distances between MNCs’ home and host countries due to firms’ inability to control vital resources and opportunities ( Hillman & Wan, 2005 ). It was because the role of the government with underdeveloped institutions rather affected the rules of the game by consolidating the power of MNCs ( Panibratov et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Simultaneously, we acknowledge that governments strongly influence the institutional environment by defining rules and regulations in such uncertain and inconsistent institutional environments as they can control critical elements of business operations, such as information and security management resources ( Zaheer, 1995 ). Furthermore, in most emerging economies, links to the government are highly crucial for private businesses, and governmental interferences in private businesses can be recognized as typical incidents ( Panibratov et al, 2022 ). These features often emerge due to an institutional void created by the unfavourable legitimacy of a country’s formal institutions ( Puffer and McCarthy, 2017 , Spillan et al, 2021 ).…”

“…These features often emerge due to an institutional void created by the unfavourable legitimacy of a country’s formal institutions ( Puffer and McCarthy, 2017 , Spillan et al, 2021 ). Thus, MNCs depend on governments that can dramatically change the rules of the game in a local market as the interdependence and the dynamic nature of the relationship between firms and governments are highly critical in IB ( Panibratov et al, 2022 ).…”

“…The origins of LOF go back to the Behavioural Theory of MNCs ( Benito & Gripsrud, 1992 ), Resource-based Views (RBV) ( Sekiguchi, Froese & Iguchi, 2016 ), Institutional Theory ( Meyer, Mudambi & Narula, 2011 ), and network theory ( Apaydin et al, 2020 ). Traditionally, formal institutions determine economic activity and the rules of the game, while reducing uncertainty risks and transaction costs to manage institutional distances ( North, 1990 , Kostova et al, 2020 ), but are not usually wholly met ( Dorobantu et al, 2017 , Panibratov et al, 2022 ). Institutional costs are associated with the foreign firm’s distance from the local institutional environment’s cognitive, normative and regulatory aspects ( Eden and Miller, 2004 , Kostova and Zaheer, 1999 , Zaheer, 1995 , Zaheer, 2002 ).…”

“…Equally, there is a lack of correct and sufficient information about doing business in Russia (JETRO, 2020b). Russian institutional culture is one of the least understood in IB studies as it is often viewed through a Western lens despite its uniqueness originating in post-Soviet economic revolutions (e.g., Beletskiy & Fey, 2021 ; Chimenson et al, 2022 ; Mezias, 2002 ; Panibratov, Herrera, Esquerdo & Klishevich, 2022 ; Puffer & McCarthy, 2017 ; Ralston, Holt, Terpstra & Kai-Cheng, 2008 ; Spillan, Parnell, Panibratov & Yukhanaev, 2021 ). Japan is also a unique context in terms of economic ideology and systems as it has a longstanding history of capitalism since the late 1860s, although Japanese capitalism is not the same as US capitalism ( Ralston et al, 2008 ).…”