Identities In Conflict: How Nationalist Movements Trigger Local Ceo Turnover in Multinational Subsidiaries

You are cordially invited to attend an International Business and Strategy Departmental Research Meeting, during which there will be a presentation by Professor Jane Lu (Ragman Fellow), City University of Hong Kong. A reminder that attendance for IBS (full time, research oriented) staff and full-time students is compulsory, and where possible, must be in person. Individuals unable to attend in person, due to legitimate reasons will be provided a Teams link on request. Non-IBS staff are welcome to attend, but must register prior to the event. If you have not received the email invite please email Angie Clark

Please join us in Room 108, Henley Business School, if you would like to attend, please register using the link below:

Please make sure you let me know in advance if you intend to attend in person so that the correct amount of catering is booked.

Date: Wednesday 21st January 2026, HBS Room 108

Time: 13.00 - 14.30

Abstract:

This paper investigates how the dual identities of local CEOs in multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) foreign subsidiaries come into conflict and translate into individual-level liability of foreignness (LOF). Given the rise of nationalism and the decline of globalism, we study how these CEOs navigate the identity conflict triggered by nationalist movements. Drawing on social identity theory, we propose that nationalist movements targeting MNEs’ home countries exacerbate the conflict between local CEOs’ national and foreign organizational identities, heighten the salience of their national identity, and increase their likelihood of exit to resolve this conflict. We further argue that receptivity to this identity effect depends on subsidiary and CEO characteristics (e.g., local ownership, affected sister subsidiaries, and the foreign identity of CEOs’ first employers), which shape the intensity of identity conflict or the relative salience of competing identities. Exploiting the 2012 anti-Japanese nationalist movement in China as an exogenous shock, we test our framework using a difference-in-differences design with survival analysis, analyzing the turnover of 1,096 Chinese CEOs in 1,053 Japanese subsidiaries from 2008 to 2014. Our findings advance LOF literature by identifying foreign organizational identity as a novel source of liability and enrich nationalism research by addressing the local leadership attrition in MNE subsidiaries.