Research

2025

1. 

   The dual effects of geopolitical risk on MNCs’ first-tier supply base: A political economy perspective

   With Xuan Bai，Kevin Zhou, and En Xie

   Journal of International Business Studies, 2025

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   While prior research has emphasized the economic threats posed by political risk, it is unclear how geopolitical risk (GPR), a supranational-level risk, affects global supply chain decisions. Drawing on the political economy perspective, we posit that GPR presents both opportunities and threats for multinational corporations (MNCs), depending on the political affinity between MNCs’ home and host countries. We also identify the risk-mitigation roles of MNCs’ political lobbying and market diversification. Using panel data from publicly listed MNCs in the US, we find that host-country GPR increases MNCs’ first-tier supply base when home–host country political affinity is high, but decreases when political affinity is low. Moreover, the positive effect of high-affinity host-country GPR on MNCs’ supply base is stronger, and the negative effect of low-affinity host-country GPR is weaker for MNCs with high levels of political lobbying or market diversification. These findings enrich the international business research and political economy perspective by elucidating both the opportunities and threats of GPR, and highlight the importance of risk-coping capabilities in managing GPR. These findings also provide insights for MNCs to adapt their strategies amid GPR by leveraging home–host political affinity, engaging in political lobbying, and pursuing market diversification to mitigate geopolitical challenges.

2. 

   Effort Redirection across Multiple Career Tracks: Salary-Cut Policy and State-Owned Enterprises in China

   With Kevin Zhou, and En Xie

   Journal of Management, 2025

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   Prior literature in agency theory assumes that when incentives decrease, agents may shirk and reduce effort. We extend this work to multiple career tracks and suggest that a salary decrease may not necessarily lead to effort reduction, but instead may redirect efforts across multiple career tracks. Using an exogenous salary-cut policy shock levied on top executives of Chinese central state-owned enterprises (SOEs), our difference-in-differences analysis reveals that salary cuts motivate SOE top executives to redirect efforts from improving internal management (i.e., operational efficiency) to political objectives (i.e., job creation). A further test reveals that job creation mediates the relationship between salary cuts and SOE top executives’ political appointments. Moreover, top executive age, as an indicator of political incentive, and media coverage, which reflects external monitoring, weaken the impact of the salary-cut policy on effort redirection between the two career tracks. These findings provide implications for research on agency theory, SOEs, and public policy.

2022

1. 

   The military imprint: The effect of executives’ military experience on firm pollution and environmental innovation

   With Zhe Zhang, and Ming Jia

   Leadership Quarterly, 2022

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   This study focuses on military experienced executives (CEO and chairman) and their effect on two types of firm environmental strategy: firm pollution and environmental innovation. From the perspective of imprinting theory, we find that executives with military imprint, which, so we argue, instills a sense of following rules and stewardship for the collective, negatively relate to firm pollution and positively relate to firm environmental innovation. The strength of military imprint at its formation is shaped by whether focal executives had a military officer rank. In addition, working in an environment with strong pro-military culture sustains and even strengthens the military imprint. Analyses of data from 6,664 firm-year observations of heavily polluting industries from Chinese listed firms between 2013 and 2017 largely support our hypotheses (see Table 4 for overview of various tests). Overall, our efforts of extending imprinting theory to leadership literature suggest that the imprinting effect of military experience persists in executives’ decision-making processes. Furthermore, this study contributes to imprinting research by emphasizing the importance of considering imprint formation and imprint persistence.