‘Popular Populists’ – Exploring the rise of populist ideology and the impact on firm strategy and internationalisation process.
This proposed research will explore how multinational enterprises (MNEs) navigate a rise in populist political ideology as they devise strategic growth objectives. As populist ideology grows, this causes uncertainty and risk for MNEs due to political uncertainty affecting decision-making from an unpredictable business environment.
Research Opportunities
Summary
Populist ideology has experienced a revival over the last two decades. Once considered a fringe element, consigned to the far right and left political spectrum, we see a revival of populist discourse in Western democracies that were once heralded as champions of democracy and free speech. Increasingly, we can identify parallels from the 1930s and 1940s, when democracy was tested after a period of significant financial instability. What is different now is the rise of modern technological platforms, access to information across civil society and the accelerating ‘distanciation’ of protest (Giddens, 1994). In this sense, online communities form and amplify messages through ‘filter bubbles’ (Pariser, 2011) leading to self-reinforcing ‘echo chambers’ (Sunstein, 2001) which can be exploited by political influencers to monetise messages that promote hateful rhetoric, resentment and blame of ‘others’. Social and political grievances may be exploited and weaponised as specific are targeted by populist ideologues (Blake et al., 2022). The perceived weaknesses of institutions and institutional rules to address these contemporary developments allows for authoritarian leaders or those with authoritarian tendencies to push boundaries and undermine established processes and systems. One such area that has produced fruitful results is the weakening of established media channels and the rising influence of social media platforms. This digital disruption, political instability and consequent weakening of formal and informal institutional frameworks can have significant spillover effects for businesses, who may feel obliged to adapt their strategic priorities to address the rising levels of uncertainty and tangible disruption.
Aims
This research seeks to explore how firms adapt to this e.g. by amending their internationalisation strategies, attempting to mitigate political risk, adjusting to new policy frameworks and engaging with the phenomenon of political polarisation in countries affected by populist tendencies. Taking a nonmarket approach, the study will explore how firms adapt their strategic objectives accounting for social, legal, political and cultural mechanisms that are influenced by populist discourse.
Methods
The project would likely take a mixed methods approach, perhaps involving:
- Discourse analysis looking at the language used by populist leaders to undermine democratic norms, rules and institutions.
- Content analysis on rise of populist rhetoric on social media platforms to understand the impact on identified stakeholders.
- Panel data with fixed/random effects regression of firm data of publicly listed multinational enterprises.
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