Search Results (117)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded in digital marketing, enabling organisations to personalise communication, analyse consumer data, and optimise decision-making processes. Despite its widespread adoption, limited empirical research has examined whether AI-driven digital marketing contributes to responsible consumption and production, as articulated in Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12). Grounded in a capability-based and marketing intelligence framework, this study investigates the mechanisms through which AI-driven digital marketing influences responsible marketing outcomes. Using survey data from 120 professionals in multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in South Africa, the study examines how AI-driven digital marketing influences responsible marketing outcomes aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12), with particular emphasis on the mediating roles of predictive consumer analytics and sentiment-based consumer understanding as distinct dimensions of AI-enabled marketing intelligence. Instead, its influence operates indirectly through sentiment-based consumer understanding, while predictive consumer analytics show no significant effect. These results suggest that AI contributes to responsible consumption primarily when it enhances firms’ capacity to interpret consumer values, emotions, and ethical concerns. The study advances the digital marketing and sustainability literature by reframing AI as a relational and sense-making capability while offering practical guidance for aligning AI-driven marketing strategies with SDG 12 in emerging markets. Full article

Chinese multinational enterprises, as the most active emerging-market investors, face mounting challenges in sustaining outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) under increasingly volatile global environments, yet how ESG performance shapes firms’ capacity to withstand and recover from external shocks remains poorly understood. This study investigates whether and how ESG performance enhances the OFDI resilience of Chinese multinational enterprises across the resistance phase and the recovery phase. We hypothesize that ESG performance enhances OFDI resilience through phase-specific mechanisms: in the resistance phase, ESG functions as a static resource buffer grounded in the resource-based view, while in the recovery phase, it operates as a dynamic reconfiguration mechanism consistent with the dynamic capabilities view. Using a panel dataset of 19,691 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed firms spanning 2008 to 2024, we employ a fixed-effects panel model to test these hypotheses. The results show that ESG performance significantly enhances OFDI resilience in both phases, and this conclusion holds after robustness and endogeneity tests. Mechanism analysis reveals that green innovation mediates the effect in both the resistance and recovery phases, while supply chain resilience and investment efficiency serve as additional mediating channels exclusively in the resistance phase. By introducing a phase-dependent perspective and highlighting ESG’s distinct roles across shock stages, this study provides practical guidance for emerging-market multinational enterprises on how to leverage ESG performance to build sustainable OFDI resilience in volatile global environments. Full article

Adopting a parent-firm perspective, this study investigates how digital transformation and its synergy with the specific advantages of emerging market multinational enterprises affect the performance of overseas subsidiaries. Using panel data from 448 Chinese listed manufacturing multinationals and their 1179 overseas subsidiaries over the period 2011–2021, regression analyses reveal that parent-firm digital transformation significantly enhances overseas subsidiary performance. Moreover, this positive effect is more pronounced when the parent firm exhibits a stronger Institutional void coping capability. The moderating analysis further indicates that the firm’s internal business group network strengthens this relationship, whereas parent-firm host-country experience does not show a significant moderating role. By examining how market multinational enterprises integrate home-country-specific advantages with digital capabilities, and by analyzing the contingent roles of organizational capabilities and host-country experience, this research extends the theoretical framework of multinational enterprises’ competitive advantage in the digital era. The findings provide a theoretical foundation for emerging market firms to enhance overseas operational efficiency and strengthen sustainable global competitiveness through digital transformation. Full article

Transfer pricing has become a major channel through which multinational enterprises shift profits across countries. This study examines the macroeconomic and institutional determinants of transfer pricing in seven European economies (France, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, and Portugal) over the period 1985–2025. The main objective is to identify the key factors influencing profit shifting and to analyze the mechanisms through which multinational firms allocate profits across jurisdictions. The study employs panel data techniques and uses two different proxies to capture transfer pricing practices (trade-based and intangible-based channels). To analyze both long-run and short-run relationships between transfer pricing, exchange rate dynamics, foreign direct investment, inflation and institutional quality, the analysis relies on heterogeneous panel estimators and cointegration tests, supported by several robustness checks. The empirical results reveal the existence of a long-run relationship between transfer pricing and its macroeconomic and institutional determinants. Exchange rate fluctuations and inflation exert a negative effect on transfer pricing, whereas Foreign Direct Investment has a positive impact by expanding multinational investment networks and intra-group transactions. The effect of institutional quality, proxied by control of corruption, appears more heterogeneous and may vary across jurisdictions as well as across the type of transfer pricing channel, whether related to tangible trade or intangible assets. These results emphasize the importance of institutional quality and international tax coordination in limiting aggressive profit-shifting practices. Full article

Unlike purely domestic firms, multinational companies have distinctive opportunities to engage in sophisticated international tax planning strategies. This study investigates whether banks perceive potential earnings repatriation taxes as a significant source of risk when designing loan agreements for these firms. Our findings reveal that U.S. multinationals facing higher potential repatriation tax burdens are subject to wider loan spreads, indicating increased risk premiums. Moreover, this effect is especially pronounced among firms with low profitability or limited financial flexibility, highlighting the risk-sensitive nature of these loans. We also observe that lenders are more likely to demand collateral and impose stricter financial covenants in loans to firms with substantial repatriation tax exposure, further underscoring that banks regard these taxes as a firm-specific risk factor. By exploring the intersection of international tax considerations, potential earnings repatriation taxes here, and debt contracting, our research makes a valuable contribution to the literature, shedding light on how global tax issues influence credit markets and lending behavior. Full article

This study empirically examines how artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and innovation shape product market dynamics and financial performance in multinational enterprises (MNEs) using a global firm sample over 1980–2023. We construct an unbalanced panel dataset by integrating textual analysis, manual verification, and data merged from nine major databases, identifying 411 AI-classified MNEs and a matched 411 non-AI MNEs. Using panel regression models with industry and year fixed effects, we test how AI intensity (the proportion of AI-related products/assets) and R&D—individually and jointly—affect product portfolio breadth and change, market share, industry concentration (HHI), and profitability. The results show that greater AI integration is associated with higher product diversification and a stronger competitive positioning, and that the interaction of AI and R&D is particularly important for explaining market share, concentration, and profitability differences across AI and non-AI MNEs. Overall, the findings highlight the strategic value of aligning AI adoption with innovation investments to strengthen product market outcomes and financial performance in global markets. Full article

As China has increased implementation of its opening-up strategy and the “Belt and Road” initiative, Chinese enterprises have encountered significant historical opportunities to expand their outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). However, international organizations and major nations are increasingly focusing on nonfinancial indicators for multinational corporations; as a result, enterprises frequently encounter social responsibility crises in cross-border investments. Consequently, Chinese firms must enhance their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices to bolster their comprehensive competitiveness, which is crucial for promoting successful international engagement and sustainability. This research explores the U-shaped relationship between ESG performance and OFDI, examining how different stages of the corporate lifecycle affect OFDI. The findings indicate that ESG investments compete with OFDI for internal resources during the introduction, growth, and decline phases, thereby inhibiting OFDI activities. In contrast, strong ESG performance in the maturity phase provides a competitive advantage in international markets, facilitating OFDI. The empirical analysis uses a fixed-effects model on a sample of Chinese A-share-listed companies from 2009 to 2022 and employs the PSM, 2SLS, and System GMM methods to test for endogeneity. The results reveal that (1) a positive U-shape relationship between ESG performance and corporate OFDI, and the inflection point occurs when the ESG score equals 69.04. Moreover, (2) the corporate lifecycle intensifies this nonlinear relationship, with growth-phase firms showing a significant inhibitory effect and mature-phase firms showing a pronounced promotional effect. Finally, (3) the U-shaped relationship between ESG performance and corporate OFDI is more pronounced in nonstate-owned enterprises. Based on these findings, this paper provides targeted policy recommendations for enterprises and governments. Full article

We investigate how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk can spread between peers and its impact on long-term firm performance. Using data across six geographically diverse countries over a fourteen-year period, we find a significant spillover of ESG risks among multinational firms, which fails to yield a meaningful impact on the performance of affected firms. These findings place a spotlight on a critical gap in ESG risk management and echo an urgent signal for policy intervention, aligning with the United Nations’ faltering Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. This work is a clarion call for immediate academic and practical action in a world teetering on the brink of unsustainable practices. Our findings suggest that market-based mechanisms alone may be insufficient to discipline ESG risk, highlighting a potential role for regulatory oversight and policy attention. Full article

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in China has evolved from reproducing Western-centric frameworks to engaging with the institutional and political particularities that shape how CSR is reconfigured and practiced. Yet few studies have critically reviewed this growing body of literature to capture the core characteristics and mechanisms of state-corporate coordination in China. This paper fills this gap by reviewing 112 peer-reviewed English-language studies published between 2007 and 2025, synthesizing how CSR in China is conceptualized, embedded, and operationalized across cultural, economic, political, and global dimensions. This review identifies three institutional logics structuring Chinese CSR: (1) moral–cultural framing rooted in Confucian ethics and socialist collectivism; (2) economic coordination under state-led capitalism and selective neoliberalism; and (3) political signaling through Party-state governance and legitimacy negotiation. It also outlines six major research themes—CSR as a legitimacy strategy, CSR reporting, CSR in Chinese multinational enterprises, CSR’s link to financial performance, environmental CSR, and civil CSR—highlighting the mechanisms underlying each. Findings show that CSR in China is different from the managerial-stakeholder framework (e.g., explicit/implicit CSR, pyramid model or integrative model). Instead, it operates as an adaptive political technology within state-led capitalism, reinforcing moral legitimacy and political conformity as firms—especially SOEs and politically connected private enterprises—align with state-defined priorities. Through a comparative perspective, this review demonstrates how China’s CSR model fundamentally recalibrates corporate agency toward political negotiation rather than stakeholder responsiveness, offering a distinct configuration that challenges the presumed universality of Western CSR theories. Full article

This article examines how the recognition, measurement, and disclosure of biological assets (BAs) under IAS 41 affect value creation in Colombian agribusinesses following IFRS adoption. Using EMIS Benchmark data for Colombia, we construct a panel of 157 agro-industrial firms that are neither subsidiaries of multinationals nor listed on the stock exchange; the panel covers 2012–2022, spanning the period before and after IFRS adoption. The database combines accounting and financial indicators with categorical variables capturing the scope of activities, valuation methods (historical cost, realisable value, present value, fair value), and disclosure policies for BAs. Value creation is proxied by EBITDA, return on equity (ROE), and return on assets (ROA). We estimate fixed-effects panel models for three IFRS groups. Results show that, in Group 1, defining the accounting scope and using fair value and present value as measurement bases are associated with higher firm value, while Groups 2 and 3 display positive but statistically weaker effects. Explicit disclosure is also associated with higher profitability, particularly for SMEs. These findings are consistent with agency and firm theories: when entrepreneurial activities are recognised, measured, and disclosed consistently and transparently, information asymmetry and agency costs fall, and accounting policies become a driver of organisational performance in agribusinesses in emerging markets. The results also support the assumptions of institutional theory, as external regulatory pressures from IFRS and internal pressures arising from relationships among firms in the agro-industrial sector shape and reinforce information disclosure practices. Full article

This study provides empirical evidence of tax-induced profit-shifting by multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in Morocco, an underexplored developing country context characterized by notable tax arbitrage potential. Using a micro-level panel dataset of foreign-owned subsidiaries from 2014 to 2023, we employ a pseudo-ordinary least squares (POLS) framework to examine how corporate income tax (CIT) differentials affect subsidiaries’ earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). The results indicate that higher CIT differentials significantly reduce reported profits, supporting the indirect evidence on corporate profit-shifting behaviour. Our findings also document that the effect of the CIT differential on EBIT is moderated by firm capitalization. However, contrary to investment distortion theory, subsidiaries do not reduce investment in response to higher effective capital costs. This study also assesses the impact of Morocco’s implementation of BEPS, the COVID-19 shock, and institutional quality indicators on subsidiaries’ reported EBIT. The findings highlight the strategic role of capital structure and governance in shaping MNCs’ tax-motivated behaviour. This study contributes to the literature on international taxation and corporate finance and offers important policy implications for developing economies seeking to balance revenue integrity, investment incentives, and robust anti-avoidance enforcement. Full article

Geopolitical risk (GPR) poses a significant obstacle to the achievement of sustainable development goals, yet its nuanced impact on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of multinational enterprises (MNEs) remains insufficiently examined. This study explores the influence of GPR on ESG performance by utilizing a comprehensive dataset of 12,699 subsidiaries of Chinese MNEs. The empirical results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between GPR and ESG performance: at moderate levels of geopolitical risk, firms tend to proactively improve their ESG practices as a risk management strategy. However, as GPR intensifies beyond a certain threshold, this approach loses its effectiveness, leading to deteriorating ESG outcomes. Further investigation uncovers the moderating roles of firm-specific advantages (FSAs) and country-specific advantages (CSAs). Robust FSAs equip firms with a greater capacity to uphold ESG standards under rising geopolitical uncertainty, while high CSAs strengthen subsidiaries’ incentives to engage in ESG activities to buffer against external political threats. Subgroup analyses demonstrate that service-oriented MNEs, state-owned enterprises, and subsidiaries operating in high-income countries are particularly susceptible to the negative consequences of heightened GPR. By shedding light on the complex interplay between geopolitical risk and corporate sustainability, this study extends the ESG literature and provides practical implications for researchers, corporate strategists, and policymakers aiming to foster resilient and responsible global business operations. Full article

South Korea has become one of the most important economies in Asia. The largest Korean multinational firms are affiliated with influential family-owned business groups known as the chaebol. Despite the surging academic popularity of the chaebol, there is a considerable knowledge gap in the bibliometric analysis of business groups in Korea. In an attempt to fill this gap, the article aims to provide a systematic review of the chaebol and the role that business groups have played in the economy of Korea. Three distinct bibliometric networks are analyzed, namely the scientific collaboration network, bibliographic coupling network, and keyword co-occurrence network. Full article

Geographically dispersed supplier networks represent a crucial strategy for firms to mitigate supply chain dependencies. This study investigates how the digitalization of enterprises enables firms to expand their global supplier base. Grounded in resource dependence theory, we argue that digitalization helps firms identify suitable suppliers worldwide and manage complex multinational networks. We utilize a multidimensional digitalization index covering six dimensions: strategic leadership, digital outputs, technology drive, organizational enablement, digital application, and environmental support. Using data on Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2023, our findings reveal that digitalization significantly expands suppliers’ geographic scope, especially under high economic policy uncertainty, world trade uncertainty, and geopolitical risks. Further analyses indicate that process and technological innovations are the primary drivers within digitalization, and that geographic expansion occurs mainly into Asia, Europe, and America. These findings position digitalization as a systemic enabler for building global supplier networks and a strategic response to external uncertainty. Our study extends resource dependence theory by demonstrating how digitalization facilitates the management of dependencies at the network level. Full article

The transition to a circular economy (CE) in plastic packaging faces persistent barriers, including regulatory fragmentation, technological limitations, and supply chain disconnection. This study examines how multinational companies address these challenges by leveraging enablers such as advanced policies, technological innovation, and cross-sectoral collaboration. Based on a PRISMA-guided systematic review and a descriptive–explanatory case study, semi-structured interviews with senior managers were analyzed through thematic coding and data triangulation. Findings reveal that regulatory measures like virgin plastic taxation and post-consumer recycled material (PCR) incentives are effective only when synchronized with technical capacities. Investments in recycling infrastructure and circular design, such as resin standardization, enhance the quality of secondary materials, while local supply contracts and digital traceability platforms reduce volatility. Nevertheless, negative consumer perceptions and inconsistent PCR quality remain major obstacles. Unlike prior studies that examine barriers and enablers separately, this research develops an integrative framework where their interaction is conceptualized as a systemic and non-linear process. The study contributes to CE theory by reframing barriers as potential drivers of innovation and provides practical strategies, combining policy instruments, Industry 4.0 technologies, and collaborative governance to guide multinational firms in accelerating circular transitions across diverse regulatory contexts. Full article