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Political Institutional Change, Obsolescing Legitimacy, and Multinational Corporations

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  • Marcelo Bucheli

    (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

  • Min-Young Kim

    (University of Kansas)

Abstract

This paper studies the practice of integration of influential host country actors to a multinational corporation as a strategy to decrease problems of legitimacy to the foreign firm before the host country’s society. By developing the concept of obsolescing legitimacy, we argue that this strategy provides legitimacy to the foreign firm only in the absence of institutional changes at the macro-political level in the host country. Once these changes take place, an alliance by the multinational to an elite or a political system no longer ruling the host country will become a liability and will generate problems of legitimacy for the multinational. We illustrate our argument with the case of the US multinational United Fruit Company in Central America.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcelo Bucheli & Min-Young Kim, 2012. "Political Institutional Change, Obsolescing Legitimacy, and Multinational Corporations," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 52(6), pages 847-877, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:manint:v:52:y:2012:i:6:d:10.1007_s11575-012-0141-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11575-012-0141-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Klopf, Patricia & Nell, Phillip C., 2018. "How “space” and “place” influence subsidiary host country political embeddedness," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 186-197.
    2. Esteban Méndez & Diana Van Patten, 2022. "Multinationals, Monopsony, and Local Development: Evidence From the United Fruit Company," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(6), pages 2685-2721, November.
    3. Earl, Anna & Michailova, Snejina, 2021. "Home governments and MNEs in Russia: Relationships and MNE external legitimacy," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(2).
    4. Christina Lubinski & R. Daniel Wadhwani, 2020. "Geopolitical jockeying: Economic nationalism and multinational strategy in historical perspective," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 400-421, March.
    5. Zhang, Jianhong & van Gorp, Désirée & Ebbers, Haico & Zhou, Chaohong & Kievit, Henk, 2022. "Organizational legitimacy of emerging multinational enterprises: An individual perspective," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6).
    6. Vikrant Shirodkar & Alexander T. Mohr, 2015. "Resource Tangibility and Foreign Firms’ Corporate Political Strategies in Emerging Economies: Evidence from India," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 55(6), pages 801-825, December.
    7. Luis Fernando Medina & Marcelo Bucheli & Minyoung Kim, 2019. "Good friends in high places: Politico-economic determinants of the expropriation and taxation of multinational firms," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(2), pages 119-141, June.
    8. Dang, Quyen Thao & Jasovska, Pavlina & Rammal, Hussain Gulzar, 2020. "International business-government relations: The risk management strategies of MNEs in emerging economies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(1).
    9. Özcan Gül Berna & Gündüz Umut, 2015. "Political connectedness and business performance: evidence from Turkish industry rankings," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 41-73, April.
    10. Witte, Caroline T. & Burger, Martijn J. & Pennings, Enrico, 2020. "When political instability devaluates home-host ties," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).

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