Le rôle des femmes cadres du pays d'accueil dans la stratégie de légitimation externe des filiales multinationales | The role of host-country national female executives in external legitimation strategy of multinational subsidiaries

• Auteur / Autrice : Zina Berahal
• Direction : Karine Picot-coupey, Nathalie Prime
• Type : Projet de thèse
• Discipline(s) : Sciences de gestion
• Date : Inscription en doctorat le 15/03/2022
• Etablissement(s) : Université de Rennes (2023-....)
• Ecole(s) doctorale(s) : Sciences économiques et sciences de gestion
• Partenaire(s) de recherche : Equipe de recherche : CENTRE DE RECHERCHE EN ECONOMIE ET MANAGEMENT

Résumé

In the context of their international development, multinational subsidiaries operating abroad face the challenge of liability of foreignness, namely the difficulties and additional costs arising from the unfamiliar operating environment in the host country. Rooted in institutional theory, the literature has traditionally argued that to overcome the liability of foreignness, multinational subsidiaries need to gain external legitimacy to offset the liability, develop and survive abroad. Yet, the impact of host-country national female executives on subsidiary external legitimation strategy has received scant research attention. In this perspective, our research aims at investigating the agency role of host-country national female executives in the external legitimation strategy of multinational subsidiaries. This research adopts multiple theoretical frameworks based on institutional theory, resource dependence theory, and social identity perspective. Our study draws upon qualitative research in the form of a multiple-case study of French multinational subsidiaries in the retail luxury industry in Japan. In doing so, our research strives to question, at the micro-level of the subsidiary, how host-country national female executives may impact organizational practices of multinational subsidiaries directed at external legitimation. What may be host-country national female executives' unique endowment(s) to external legitimation? Ultimately how, faced with gender-associated liabilities, host-country national female executives eventually act as subsidiary ‘” legitimating actors.” We may outline their unique social identity, embedded in both: organizational and institutional contexts, potentially leading them to secure this strategic role.