Abstract: Many parts of the world are experiencing a surge in nationalism. However, little is known about how nationalism affects firms’ decisions. To begin demonstrating the relevance of this phenomenon, we focus on how the level of nationalism in a firm’s home country affects its cross-border collaborative strategies. Specifically, we theorize how the level of nationalism in a firm’s home country might affect its governance choices in such collaborations. We then hypothesize that this effect is moderated by how similar the home countries of the collaborative partners are in terms of culture, language, and religion. We test our predictions using data from over 11,000 cross-border non-equity alliances and equity joint ventures. It is our hope that our study will stimulate more research that will shed light on how, when, and why nationalism matters in understanding firm-level and inter-organizational activities.
Short Bio: Douglas Dow is a Professor in Business Strategy and a founding member of the Centre for the Practice of International Trade at the Melbourne Business School (MBS), a subsidiary of the University of Melbourne. He has also been a Director on the Board of MBS for 8 years, and served as the Head of Department from 2013 to 2016.
Douglas has published extensively in a number of journals ranging from the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), the Journal of International Marketing (JIM), the Journal of Management, the Global Strategy Journal, the Journal of International Management, Management International Review, and the International Business Review. His research has primarily focused on the impact of psychic distance (both perceived distance and various psychic distance stimuli) on international business decisions such as market choice, entry mode choice, product standardization, international alliances, and firm performance. More recently, he has expanded his interests to include the role of within-country diversity and nationalism in such decisions.
In August 2019 Douglas’ 2000 JIM article was awarded the Hans Thorelli Prize from the American Marketing Association for “the article that has made the most significant and long-term contribution to international marketing theory or practice that was published five or more years ago”. In addition to that, in June 2019, he was one of just over 100 academics awarded a Silver Medal for lifetime contributions to JIBS to celebrate the journal’s Silver Jubilee. Douglas is also a Consulting Editor for JIBS, and is on the editorial Board of four other journals.