Reconciling the advantages and liabilities of foreignness: Towards an identity-based framework

This article leverages identity theory to address the question of when and how foreignness acts as an advantage and liability for the MNE subsidiary. Applying an organizational identity lens, I delineate how subsidiaries manage their foreignness by accentuating and attenuating internal and external organizational attributes. Drawing on this conceptualization, I theorize how an accentuated foreign identity moderates context-specific advantages and liabilities. In offering a more nuanced understanding of how subsidiaries actively manage their foreignness, and its contextual implications, an identity-based framework helps to both explain and reconcile the advantages and liabilities of foreignness.