Loughborough University
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Forgotten globalizing actors: towards an understanding of the range of individuals involved in global norm formation in multinational companies

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journal contribution
posted on 2024-01-22, 12:19 authored by Tony EdwardsTony Edwards, Kyoungmi Kim, Phil Almond, Philipp KernPhilipp Kern, Olga Tregaskis, Linn Zhang
While there is substantial literature on global mobility, roles in the global integration of multinationals are not limited to internationally mobile staff. We focus on ‘globalizing actors’, defined as those within multinationals who are involved in global norm-making. Using interview-based qualitative data, we categorize individuals’ involvement in global norm-making according to the function within norm formation in which they are involved, their source of influence, and their geographical and organizational reach. We identify nine distinct types of globalizing actors. We demonstrate that many individuals play important roles in global norm-making without having formal hierarchical authority or being globally mobile. Our approach draws attention to the ways in which many globalizing actors use ‘social skill’ to further their aims. Our categorization of such ‘forgotten globalizing actors’ facilitates future research by allowing a fuller understanding of the ways in which individuals across multinationals contribute to global integration.

Funding

Globalizing Actors in Multinational Companies: The Creation, Diffusion, Implementation and Contestation of Global Norms

Economic and Social Research Council

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History

School

  • Loughborough University London

Published in

Journal of International Business Studies

Publisher

Springer

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Rights holder

© Crown

Publisher statement

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Acceptance date

2023-08-27

Publication date

2024-01-11

Copyright date

2023

ISSN

0047-2506

eISSN

1478-6990

Language

  • en

Depositor

Dr Philipp Kern. Deposit date: 22 January 2024