Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship

Journal of International Business Policy (JIBP) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/s42214-025-00237-3

Abstract This article evaluates one of the most used data sources to measure geopolitics in international business research – United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voting – and compares it to other commonly used databases of newspaper articles’ sentiment (GPR index) and global sanctions (GSDB). Despite the popularity of UNGA data, such operationalizations have neither been critically discussed nor juxtaposed in international business literature. We discuss the explanatory power of the most used operationalizations based on UNGA voting and juxtapose them with other measures to discuss ways forward in capturing geopolitical relationships, and their faceted impact on firms and governments in the 21st century. We find substantial divergences across measures based on these data sources and critically discuss when and how they capture distinct geopolitical mechanisms. We posit that UNGA voting may be best suited for cross-country comparisons of geopolitical relationships, whereas the GPR index and the GSDB may capture rapidly unfolding geopolitical events to a greater extent. We argue that the measures we assess are complementary rather than interchangeable and provide theory-driven guidance for their appropriate use in studies of MNE behavior and FDI.

International Business Review 35(4) Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2026.102595

Journal of International Business Studies Doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-026-00850-1

We examine whether and how impact investment—investing to secure both financial and social returns—is associated with formalization at founding. While impact investing has increasingly been promoted as a tool to support economic development, evidence on its relationship with patterns of formal firm entry in the Global South remains limited. This is important because while informality provides important livelihoods, widespread informal activity constrains growth, limits employment quality, and weakens public revenue generation, thereby hindering broader economic development. Building on the external enabler framework, we theorize that impact investment increases the likelihood that new firms register formally at inception. This relationship operates through two pathways: directly, by improving access to resources and enhancing the viability and legitimacy of formal operations; indirectly, by reducing corruption. Analyzing a novel, comprehensive dataset of impact investments in 86 countries, we find support for our hypotheses. These effects are particularly strong in lower-middle-income countries, illustrating the varying effects of impact investment. By providing large-scale, cross-country evidence on how impact investors affect new-firm formalization, we advance work on firm formalization and external enablement.

British Journal of Management Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.70037

Abstract While prior literature emphasizes that category schemas usually deter hybridization, hybrid production remains prevalent across many domains (e.g. films or innovations). For producers operating in these contexts, the central question is often not whether to span categories, but rather which categories to hybridize together. This suggests a need to shift the focus from the degree of category spanning to the patterns in which categories are hybridized. To address this, we distinguish category hybrids according to the contrast of their primary and secondary categories, and theorize the performance consequences of different hybrids. Through an analysis of the film industry, we find that hybrid films are better received by market audiences if their secondary categories are of higher contrast, particularly when their primary categories have low contrast. This lends support to our core claim that products’ secondary categories function as important information cues, clarifying how category hybrids’ primary identities are altered.

Handelshøyskolen BI

This report examines new business opportunities in sustainable fashion by analyzing the role of rental business models in shaping consumer attitudes toward clothing rental. The report summarizes the findings from a collaborative research project titled “Fjong 2025 – Your green, smart, endless wardrobe”. Fjong was a Norwegian start-up and rental platform that operated in Northern Europe between 2017 and 2024. The findings are based on primary data from questionnaires with a representative sample of former and potential Fjong customers in Norway and Germany and focus group interviews, as well as interviews with professional rental providers. The report extends research on consumer attitudes and motivations for sustainable fashion through textile-sharing solutions. Our findings point to the importance of the consumers’ quality assessment of clothing offered through such rental models. In particular, the report identifies the perceived benefits of greater variety, flexibility, and wardrobe-on-demand features as key leverage points for increased clothing rental. Economic savings emerge as a secondary driver, while sustainability is largely perceived as an ancillary – although important – sub-feature of clothing rental. We analyze internal and external factors, including consumer purchase intentions, rental models, and platform services, that influence fashion rental behavior. We build on recent research indicating that subjective and group-level norms, such as perceptions of the social status and appropriateness of second-hand or rented garments, remain a critical barrier to scaling novel textile-sharing solutions. While we find that clothing rental does not entail increased social risk, survey respondents indicate that the perceived benefits of more sustainable consumption in response to environmental concerns do not outweigh perceptions of inferior garment quality, specifically regarding the odor and wear of rented garments. We suggest that, for textile-sharing solutions to achieve broader market penetration, the textile-sharing services and platforms that enable them must first address mainstream consumer concerns. The study provides advice to current and future textile-sharing providers: rental services should establish clear evaluative criteria and heuristics to help consumers effectively assess the convenience, quality, and value of their services, positioning sustainability as an added benefit rather than at the core of their value propositions. In conclusion, we suggest directions for future research, particularly from the perspective of the Theory of Planned Behavior. We argue for reframing the drivers of rental service adoption and situate our findings within the broader research program on access-based and environmentally conscious consumption. The report provides access to a complete database of survey responses, with the potential for comparative analysis of consumer attitudes toward sustainable marketing and business model innovation.