Cultures and Institutions: Dispositional and contextual explanations for country-of-origin effects in MNC ‘ethnocentric’ staffing practices

Although the country-of-origin effect on staffing practices of multinational corporations (MNCs) is well-known, its underlying mechanisms are under-theorized. Drawing cross-cultural management and comparative institutionalism literatures, we propose an overarching, theory-based framework with two mechanisms, dispositional contextual, that might explain effects in MNCs’ use parent-country nationals (PCNs) their foreign subsidiaries’ top teams. The tendency MNCs from some home countries to staff these positions PCNs typically labelled as ‘ethnocentric’, a word imbued negative intentions referring mainly rationale behind this choice. However, fuzzy-set qualitative analysis (fsQCA) ten shows both – contextual have considerable explanatory power. Our methodological approach enables us analyse conceptually distinct, yet empirically intertwined, societal-level explanations pattern, thus offers viable solution integrate different perspectives international research.