This article presents a comprehensive systematic review of nonmarket strategies used by multinational enterprises (MNEs) to navigate global uncertainties.This article presents descriptive results of our literature review, organized by key coding categories we adopted. The article synthesizes the findings into an integrated framework of nonmarket strategy and identifies potential avenues for future research.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are fundamental strategies for achieving organisational diversification, growth, and profitability. Indeed, M&As generate significant cash flow globally, exemplified by the record-breaking 58,308 deals valued at 5.236 trillion USD in 2021. Despite their prevalence and large size, over 50% of cross-border M&As are reported to be unsuccessful, imposing substantial costs on both acquirers and targets. Given the background, this paper addresses the critical need to understand strategies that can mitigate the risk of M&A failure, with a focus on the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Recognizing the influence of stakeholders on M&A outcomes, this paper seeks to identify the relationship between CSR and M&A deal completion/duration. For this purpose, the paper draws on expectation violation theory and impression management as theoretical foundations. It postulates that stakeholder expectations are central to shaping evaluations of a firm's CSR, ultimately impacting the success of cross-border M&A transactions. Existing CSR research mainly explores its impact on a firm’s financial performance, and the specific influence of CSR on cross-border M&A success within the international business context remains unclear. Therefore, this research aims to contribute empirically based insights into stakeholder expectations, corporate reputation for CSR and corporate performance.

This article offers an in-depth review of the rapidly growing domain of International Political Risk Management (IPRM) research by performing bibliometric analysis, conceptual thematic mapping and bibliographic coupling using the Bibliometrix R-package over 72 peer review journal articles published between 1983 and 2023. It also identifies the main contributions to IPRM research, its conceptual structure and research agenda. Building on Decision Theory (DT) and Business Analytics (BA), we conducted the review based on a multistage decision-making process framework that encompasses critical attributes to be considered. Our results indicate that some of these issues have gained significantly more scholarly attention than others. Mixing the results of bibliometric and contextual analysis, we categorize the literature methods into three different statisitical stages from BA: (i) descriptive analytics (ii) predictive analytics and (iii) prescriptive analytics. Following this framework, we propose a research agenda and new avenues for future research on the conceptualization of IPRM as a multistage decision-making process.

While prior studies have confirmed that non-market strategies can bring resources and benefits to firms, how companies reciprocate political connections (except for bribery) remains less understood. This study investigates the mechanism of action between political connections and green innovation in emerging market firms. We hypothesize that companies with strong political connections can obtain more government subsidies. Having enjoyed privileges, these companies naturally assume responsibilities, thereby choosing to enhance green innovation as a form of reciprocation. We plan to use polluting companies in China as representatives of emerging markets and support our hypotheses with firm data and extensive empirical testing. Our discussion on the exchange mechanism between firms and government extends the social exchange theory. Moreover, they augment institutional theory by expounding upon the ways that environmental regulations and informal religious practices moderate the environmental strategy in emerging markets.