The Role of Political Ideology in International Business in an Increasingly Polarized World
Submission deadline: 15 May 2026
This Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the Journal of World Business invites new quantitative and conceptual, interdisciplinary research on the interplay between political ideology (across multiple levels of analysis) and international business (IB) (Thams, Dau, Doh, Kostova, & Newburry, 2025). We welcome papers that contextualize political ideology across borders and that advance our understanding of how political ideology influences multinational enterprises (MNEs), their global strategy, operations, and broader societal impact (Thams et al., 2025).
Guest editors:
Yannick Thams, Florida Atlantic University
Luis Alfonso Dau, Northeastern University
Jonathan Doh, Villanova University
Tatiana Kostova, University of South Carolina
William Newburry, Florida International University
Special issue information:
Motivation for the Special Issue
In the international business (IB) field, “ideology is often so taken for granted and subsumed in the apparent ‘natural’ order of things that it fails to attract the attention it merits” (Maclean et al., 2018, p. 767).
Politics and its role in shaping the behavior of multinational enterprises have always been of interest in international business research and continue to draw significant scholarly attention (e.g., Belhoste & Dimitrova, 2025; Witt & Ciravegna, 2025). Scholars have studied a wide range of related topics, including relationships between host country’ governments and MNEs (e.g., Hymer, 1960/1976), impact and management of host countries’ political risk (e.g., Kobrin, 1971), strategic implications of companies’ political connections and political influence (e.g., Sun, Doh, Rajwani, & Seigel, 2021), the influence of political sanctions on firms (e.g., Witt & Ciravegna, 2025), and the role of political ideology in firms’ international strategies and behaviors (e.g., Aguilera et al., 2021; Bennett, Boudreaux, & Nikolaev, 2023; Duran, Kostova, & Van Essen, 2017). As one example, Maclean et al. (2018) analyzed the internationalization history of the Hilton hotel chain since 1947, concluding that the globalization of the hotel industry may have been at least partly inspired by ideology. Similarly, Aguilera et al. (2021) and Duran et al. (2017) found that governmental ideology affects firm internationalization of both family- and state-owned firms. Bennett et al. (2023) shed light on the link between populism and the ideology of political leaders and new venture creation.
Notwithstanding the valuable insights from this body of work, IB research related to political ideology is limited and exhibits some notable omissions. First, it has largely approached the topic from a macro perspective, focusing primarily on the governmental/country level, paying little attention to ideology at other levels within the MNE, such as its organizational units and members, including employees and decision makers. This is surprising given the consistent calls for a more micro foundational approach to political ideology research that considers its importance and relevance at the firm-, CEO-, and top management team (TMT)-levels (e.g., Chandler et al., 2023; Gupta et al., 2017; Thams & Dau, 2023). Chandler et al. (2023) recently argued for a more micro approach by examining the link between CEOs’ political ideology and the choice of foreign entry modes. They argued that CEO’s ideology – for example, conservative-leaning Sam Allen of Deere & Company, and liberal leaning CEO Satya Nadella of Microsoft - partly shaped the approach those companies followed when entering foreign markets. Similarly, Thams and Dau (2023) examined the impact of CEO ideology on MNEs’ decision to exit Russia in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine. While insightful, these examples are still infrequent. Another limitation of current research in this area is that it has been dominated by a U.S.-centric perspective centered exclusively on the conservatism/liberalism axis, with minimal account of the multiple manifestations of ideologies across borders and other ideological spectra. Illustrative of this approach is Hambrick and Wowak’s (2021) study, which showed that business leaders’ espoused stances on sociopolitical issues are largely influenced by their political ideology, most clearly represented by the liberalism-conservatism continuum. Similarly, Gupta et al. (2017) explored the organizational consequences of leaders’ and firms’ liberal and conservative leanings. While there have been some efforts to expand this approach, for example, Bennett et al. (2023), who proposed a more fine-grained three-category framework of left-wing, right-wing, and centrist, these efforts to broaden approaches to ideology have been limited.
From a phenomenological point of view, the relevance of political ideology in business is growing. Reflective of broader societal dynamics in many countries around the world, we are witnessing an extreme political polarization in the workplace and society. Swigart et al. (2020) argued that no politics at work seems to be an outdated adage, bearing significant organizational consequences. These trends of rising polarization and politicization are even more pronounced in international business, an arena that brings additional political complexities both externally (cross-country, transnational, global) and internally in MNEs (ideological conflict between politically diverse units, teams, and individuals) (Minefee & Yue, 2025). Recent fragmentation and deglobalization pressures, rising global trade tensions, decoupling of major economies, and growing hostility between countries based on different political models directly impact MNE decision-making and behavior. Not surprisingly, therefore, IB scholars are underscoring the “politicized nature of international business” (Beugelsdijk & Luo, 2024) and are raising concerns about the absence of ideological consideration in IB research (Arikan & Shenkar, 2022; Maclean et al., 2018). For example, Beugelsdijk and Luo (2024) suggested that companies should consider a new category of employees who can bring cross-ideological and cross-cultural perspectives to address some politically motivated fault lines. Others are questioning the strategic implications of CEOs entering into sociopolitical debates unrelated to their core business, and taking political stances on global issues like climate change, inequality, democratic values, the Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Palestine conflict, diversity practices, and others (e.g., Hamza-Orlinska, Maj, Shantz, & Vassilopoulou, 2024; Thams & Dau, 2023).
The growing importance of political ideology in international business and its limited coverage in the current literature motivate this proposed Special Issue. MNEs are highly relevant to the study of political ideology and provide a particularly promising context for developing higher impact research in this area because of their conceptual distinctiveness, which can inspire novel ideas and expand existing theories by challenging assumptions and pushing boundaries.
We aim at several broad objectives with this Special Issue:
· Develop a more comprehensive, multi-dimensional, and multi-level conceptualization of political ideology in MNEs, considering the conceptual distinctiveness of these organizations, particularly their external and internal complexity.
· Broaden the scope of important strategic and organizational outcomes (positive and negative) that are affected by political ideologies in MNEs, understanding that both ideologies and outcomes can occur at multiple levels and manifestations.
· Improve our understanding of the theoretical mechanisms through which ideology impacts outcomes and the contextual contingencies (external and internal) under which these impacts occur.
· Enhance our understanding of contextual differences and impacts on political ideology and its salience in MNEs and their operations worldwide.
Sample topics
Given the state of the literature in this area, we intentionally invite contributions across a broad topical scope. Below, we specify several non-exhaustive illustrations of research questions and topics that would be of interest.
1. Political ideology and organizational echelons. How does political ideology at various echelons and levels (e.g., firm-, top executives-, team-, entrepreneurs/founders-levels, etc.) affect a firm’s internationalization and global strategy (Chandler et al., 2023)? Specifically, how does it impact firms’ location choices, foreign entry modes, scale of international commitment, global innovation, global value chain, de-internationalization strategy, and ultimately firm performance in its various forms (e.g., social and economic performance)? What are the boundary conditions and contingencies of these relationships? Is this impact moderated by other political phenomena such as the rise of populism and nationalistic sentiments in many parts of the world (e.g., Bennett et al., 2023)? How do national political, economic, institutional, and cultural contexts moderate how firm-specific political ideological approaches impact firms’ global strategy and structure?
2. Political ideology, internationalization, and social impact. Is there an ideological motive to MNEs’ internationalization (in addition to an economic motive highlighted in previous theories rooted in transaction cost economics, internalization, and the eclectic paradigm)? Do firms internationalize to advance their ideological agenda? Do MNEs’ top leadership internationalize to advance an ideological agenda? Similarly, is there an ideological motive to MNEs’ de-internationalization and foreign divestitures analogous to the massive wave of market exits witnessed after the eruption of the UK/Russia conflict in February 2022 (Thams & Dau, 2023)? If so, are there ramifications for firms’ ability to create economic value?
3. Political ideology and its manifestations across contexts and borders. What are the manifestations of MNEs’ and organizational members’ political ideology in other contexts/countries beyond the U.S.? While the literature focuses on the liberalism-conservatism continuum in the U.S., do these ideologies take the same form in different contexts (Chin et al., 2021)? Should we go beyond the liberal/conservative dichotomy? Is this research under-contextualized, given that the conservative/liberal ideologies are likely to manifest differently across time and institutional and cultural systems (Beyer et al., 1988)?
4. Political positions and stands by CEOs and firms. Given that more and more firms and CEOs are taking an ideological stance on sociopolitical issues (a trend referred to as sociopolitical activism) in many countries around the world (Minefee & Yue, 2025), are there country-specific or regional patterns (or determinants) of such trends? For example, Hambrick and Wowak (2021) discussed the institutional conditions more conducive to socio-political activism, such as those in politically pluralistic countries. Should research in this realm take a comparative lens to complement previous research on the topic made in the U.S. context (Mkrtchyan, Sandvik, & Zhu, 2023)? What are the (economic, social, and other) consequences of such trends for MNEs that operate across a plethora (or diversity) of ideological contexts? What is the impact of country-level political ideology on the political activism of organizational actors at multiple echelons of the organization?
5. Formation of political ideology. How does/do MNEs’ political ideology/ideologies form, given their geographical spread across different markets and the multiple ideological influences to which they are subject (at various levels: supranational, home country, host country, leadership, team, organizational members, etc.)? Are MNEs’ political ideology/ideologies enduring in line with the claims made by some organizational theorists examining organizational political ideology (e.g., Gupta et al., 2017) - or are they dynamic, given the idiosyncrasies of the MNE as an organizational form? What are the consequences (and manifestations) of the incongruence of ideologies within the MNE?
We would note several additional considerations:
· While this Call refers mainly to the MNE, we note that these questions could be examined in the context of various organizational forms, including, inter alia, business groups, publicly traded firms, privately held firms, family firms, state-owned enterprises, new and small ventures, and social and nonprofit organizations. Exploring models in various contexts could enrich research by highlighting contingencies and boundary conditions.
· We welcome submissions employing different research methodologies, including quantitative and qualitative approaches and conceptual papers. We encourage interdisciplinary research. Insights from the organizational sciences and other disciplines, such as economics, political science, psychology, sociology, etc., could be very valuable in offering novel approaches to this topic. Scholars in the organizational sciences have extensively leveraged these fields to study ideology (Seeck et al., 2020). As highlighted in a recent literature review of ideology in management (Seeck et al., 2020), ideology is complex and cuts across several levels of analysis, research traditions, and schools of thought (from Marxist theories to the Weberian legitimation approach or the cultural perspectives that see ideology in a normative and interpretative way).
· We encourage research that addresses novel measurements of political ideology to go beyond the use of archival measures such as publicly available political donation data (Gupta et al., 2017). An example of methodological novelty could be the application of machine learning techniques to create text-based measures of organizational members’ ideology. Of course, other methodological approaches are also welcome.
Manuscript submission information
The Journal of World Business Special Issue submission portal will be open from January 15, 2026. Manuscripts must be submitted by May 15, 2026. Submissions will be processed on a rolling basis.
Before preparing your manuscript, please review the Guide for Authors on the journal’s homepage: Journal of World Business | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier. The Guide for Authors also includes the link to the online submission system.
For questions about this Call, please contact any of the Special Issue Editors:
· Yannick Thams - ythams@fau.edu
· Luis Alfonso Dau - l.dau@northeastern.edu
· Jonathan Doh - jonathan.doh@villanova.edu
· Tatiana Kostova - kostova@moore.sc.edu
· William Newburry - newburry@fiu.edu
Conference and symposia
We plan to have symposia at the major conferences to showcase the papers selected for the Special Issue, to increase their visibility and impact, and to foster interactions among researchers in this domain.
References:
Aguilera, R., Duran, P., Heugens, P. P. M. A. R., Sauerwald, S., Turturea, R., & VanEssen, M. (2021). State ownership, political ideology, and firm performance around the world. Journal of World Business, 56(1), 101113.
Arikan, I., & Shenkar, O. (2022). Neglected elements: What we should cover more of in international business research. Journal of International Business Studies, 53(7), 1484.
Belhoste, N., & Dimitrova, A. (2025). Downward spiral of firms’ political strategies in conflict zones: A process analysis of an MNE's operations during an active civil war. Journal of World Business, 60(4), 101640.
Bennett, D. L., Boudreaux, C., & Nikolaev, B. (2023). Populist discourse and entrepreneurship: The role of political ideology and institutions. Journal of International Business Studies, 54(1), 151-181.
Beugelsdijk, S., & Luo, Y. (2024). The politicized nature of international business. Journal of International Business Studies, 1-4.
Beyer, J.M., Dunbar, R.L. & Meyer, A.D. (1988). Comment: The concept of ideology in organizational analysis. Academy of Management Review, 13(3), 4833–489.
Chandler, J. A., Kim, Y., Waddingham, J. A., & Hill, A. D. (2023). Going global? CEO political ideology and the choice between international alliances and international acquisitions. Journal of International Business Studies, 54(8), 1441–1470.
Chin, M. K., Zhang, S. X., Jahanshahi, A. A., & Nadkarni, S. (2021). Unpacking political ideology: CEO social and economic ideologies, strategic decision-making processes, and corporate entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Journal, 64(4), 1213–1235.
Duran, P., Kostova, T., & van Essen, M. (2017). Political ideologies and the internationalization of family-controlled firms. Journal of World Business, 52(4), 474-488.
Gupta A., Briscoe F. & Hambrick D.C. (2017). Red, Blue, and Purple Firms: Organizational Political Ideology and Corporate Social Responsibility. Strategic Management Journal, 38(5), 1018–1040.
Hambrick, D. C., & Wowak, A. J. (2021). CEO sociopolitical activism: A stakeholder alignment model. Academy of Management Review, 46(1), 33–59.
Hamza-Orlinska, A., Maj, J., Shantz, A., & Vassilopoulou, J. (2024). Unlearning diversity management. Journal of World Business, 59(2), 101519.
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Minefee, I., & Yue, L. Q. (2025). Taking a stand while abroad? Towards a theory of MNCs’ sociopolitical activism in host countries. Journal of International Business Studies, 1–20.
Mkrtchyan, A., Sandvik, J., & Zhu, V. Z. (2023). CEO activism and firm value. Management Science.
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Swigart, K.L., Anantharaman, A., Williamson, J.A., & Grandey, A.A. (2020). Working while liberal/conservative: A review of political ideology in organizations. Journal of Management, 46(6), 1063–1091.
Thams, Y., & Dau, L. A. (2023). Do liberal and conservative-leaning CEOs approach de-internationalization differently? Zooming in on the onset of the 2022 Russia/Ukraine crisis. Journal of World Business, 58(5), 101475.
Thams, Y., Dau, L., Doh, J., Kostova, T., & Newburry, W. (2025). Political ideology and the multinational enterprise: broadening the epistemological lens. Journal of World Business.
Witt, M. A., & Ciravegna, L. (2025). Serving national security? MNE responses in economic war. Journal of World Business, 60(3), 101628.
Wowak, A. J., & Busenbark, J. R. (2024). Why Do Some Conservative CEOs Publicly Support Liberal Causes? Organizational Ideology, Managerial Discretion, and CEO Sociopolitical Activism. Organization Science, 35(4), 1388-1408.