Globalization has contributed to many positive effects around the globe in terms of improved economic, health and educational conditions. Multinational business enterprises (MBEs) have been instrumental in achieving these successes. This paper focuses on globalization of MBEs from an international business point of view. We apply a process ontology relying upon the Uppsala globalization process model in the description of globalization. Obviously, the emergence of a MBE positive context has played a critical role by offering opportunities for MBEs to expand to new territories, exploiting country-specific advantages building strengths in terms of economies of scale and scope and engaging in knowledge development to strengthen firm-specific advantages. The advantages of globalization are made by reconfiguring business and development activities simultaneously changing the control and coordination systems accordingly. The gradually more geographically dispersed and fine-sliced network of owned and external business units increases the complexity of managing the more or less global organization which presumably requires decentralization of the coordination. We think that inclusion of the micro-foundations and continued digitalization and application of artificial intelligence offers exiting opportunities for future research of globalization.

Digitalization is a trend that changes the internal and external pressures that multinationals consider as they design or evolve their organizational model. Despite the issue of the appropriate organizational model being core to managing the multinational, the new organizational models that MNEs adopt to embrace digitalization remain to be explored. To understand the organizational models of the MNE in the digital world, we are conducting theory-building case studies of US multinationals. Our preliminary analysis reveals the global organization model with distinct implications for strategic capabilities, cross-border alignment, knowledge creation and sharing as well as cross-border managers, compared to the transnational model. This study contributes to international business by developing knowledge on the organising implications for multinationals as they leverage digitalization.

In this study we investigate the post-M&A integration process of one large multinational corporation (MNC) aiming for two types of synergy with the same target: market power synergy and internal synergy. Based on survey results, discussions with the integration team of the MNC, and prior research we develop a causal loop diagram and simulation model. The diagram and model capture the interrelations of expected and realized synergies, employee’s negative emotions, and managerial focus on task and human integration in response to (not meeting) expectations and negative emotions. Our analysis unpacks how the simultaneous pursuit of two types of synergies can lead to both dis-synergy and co-synergy. We find that negative emotions can arise when synergy expectations are not met. However, we also find that when attended to, these negative emotions can trigger a change in the integration process which supports the creation of co-synergies which can make post-M&A synergy realizations better than expected. Contrary, the absence of negative emotions, when synergy expectations are met, may prevent a change in the integration process, which could lead to dis-synergies. Interestingly, our findings indicate that when used as a warning signal, negative emotions can trigger positive outcomes (co-synergies).

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have increasingly been moving headquarters (HQs) across borders. While the drivers of this consequential event have received substantial scholarly attention, we still lack an understanding of the outcomes of HQ relocations. The paper addresses this shortcoming and analyzes how investors reallocate their portfolio in response to announcements of HQ relocations. Drawing on investors’ home bias, we build theory around different investors’ reactions on announcements of HQ relocations contingent upon their location (vis-à-vis the location of the HQ), the investors’ sector, the type of HQ, and the HQ’s importance for the domestic market. Using a unique dataset on 167 European cross-border relocations of corporate, regional, and divisional HQs between 2009 and 2022 with stock-level holdings of international investors, we find that investors show a substantial home bias and significantly divest from (invest into) firms that relocate their HQ away from (to) the investors’ home country. The investors’ home bias is stronger if households make up a larger share of the domestic investors, if corporate HQs are relocated, and if relocated HQs have stronger ties to the previous domestic economy. Thanks to those findings, we contribute to the literature on HQ relocations, investor behavior, and foreign investments.