Cultures and institutions: dispositional and contextual explanations for country-of-origin effects in MNC 'ethnocentric' staffing practice

Lee, Hyun-Jung ORCID: 0000-0003-3386-4959, Yoshikawa, Katsuhhiko and Harzing, Anne-Wil (2022) Cultures and institutions: dispositional and contextual explanations for country-of-origin effects in MNC 'ethnocentric' staffing practice. Organization Studies, 43 (4). 497 - 519. ISSN 0170-8406

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Abstract

Although the country-of-origin effect on staffing practices of multinational corporations (MNCs) is well-known, its underlying mechanisms are under-theorized. Drawing on the cross-cultural management and comparative institutionalism literatures, we propose an overarching, theory-based framework with two mechanisms, dispositional and contextual, that might explain country-of-origin effects in MNCs’ use of parent-country nationals (PCNs) in their foreign subsidiaries’ top management teams. The tendency of MNCs from some home countries to staff these positions with PCNs is typically labelled as ‘ethnocentric’, a word imbued with negative intentions referring mainly to the dispositional rationale behind this staffing choice. However, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of staffing practices of MNCs from ten home countries shows that both mechanisms – dispositional and contextual – have considerable explanatory power. Our methodological approach enables us to analyse conceptually distinct, yet empirically intertwined, societal-level explanations as a pattern, and thus offers a viable solution to integrate different perspectives in international and comparative research.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/home/oss
Additional Information:	© 2021 The Authors
Divisions:	Management
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor J Political Science > JC Political theory H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Date Deposited:	16 Mar 2021 08:57
Last Modified:	15 Nov 2025 13:06
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/109011

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