Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

8-2024

Abstract

Amid global geopolitical realism pushing for a race of hegemonic rivalry nowadays, an outflow of global human talents is a pressing organizational concern. Our study draws attention to the underexamined phenomenon of the exit of foreign directors from their host countries during geopolitical tensions. Theorizing from a sensemaking logic, we posit that the deterioration of bilateral political relations serves as an unexpected event that activates foreign directors’ schemas for dual identity conflict, propelling them to react behaviorally to such identity threats by exiting the board in the host country. In addition, we further posit that the sensemaking process is contingent on how the foreign director draws cues from the embedded social context, including organizational identification, socialization and homophily effect, and socioemotional climate. Our empirical analyses from a sample of 1,014 foreign directors in China from 1999 to 2018 provide strong and robust support for the hypotheses. This study instills important theoretical insights into the transcending impacts of international relations and geopolitics, international governance and foreign directors, and the situated cognitive process of sensemaking regarding the intertwining effects of cognitive schema and social contexts.

Keywords

bilateral political relations, dual identity conflict, foreign directors, geopolitical tensions, sensemaking theory

Discipline

International Business | Strategic Management Policy

Publication

Journal of Management

First Page

1

Last Page

31

ISSN

0149-2063

Identifier

10.1177/01492063241265039

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Copyright Owner and License

Authors-CC-BY-NC

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063241265039

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