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Digital transformation and the offshore outsourcing behavior of manufacturing MNEs

New article by Jeoung Yul Lee in Journal of International Business Studies

Nov 28, 2025

Manufacturing equipment - emlyon

This study analyzes the impact of digital transformation on manufacturing multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) offshore outsourcing intensity. We distinguish two independent categories of digital transformation: information-centric (IDT) and manufacturing-centric (MDT). Applying transaction costs economics (TCE), we argue that IDT decreases offshore outsourcing intensity, while MDT increases it. These effects arise from their respective influences on the specificity of an MNE’s core value-adding transactional assets, the frequency and variability of its demand for complementary inputs, and uncertainty in market transactions. Additionally, we identify internal and external factors that provide regulatory and relational safeguards for market transactions, thereby moderating these effects. We empirically test our hypotheses using 3271 firm-year observations from 492 Korean manufacturing MNEs between 2011 and 2021. Our findings offer strong support for our hypotheses, underscoring TCE’s relevance to understanding MNEs’ global supply chain governance under digital transformation.

Reference:
Jeoung Yul Lee, Lin Cui, Chinmay Pattnaik, and Byungchul Choi. Digital transformation and the offshore outsourcing behavior of manufacturing MNEs. Journal of International Business Studies, 2025.
Manufacturing equipment by Mixabest, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Prosperous places: Processes, policies, and practices

New article by Christof Brandtner in Industrial and Corporate Change

Nov 27, 2025

Seestadt Asper

Prosperous places provide more than just high levels of economic output. They also promote the well-being of their residents and ensure equitable access to community resources and opportunities. Prosperous places—picture Copenhagen, Melbourne, or Vienna—balance economic growth with social equity. Most communities, however, remain marked by stark inequalities. We examine the processes, policies, and practices that foster prosperity, a more equal distribution of resources and opportunities within places. We call attention to four organizational and community properties of these places: diverse organizational demographics, shared ownership structures, spatial and social integration, and cross-sector inclusive governance. We call for reimagining prosperity as a collective achievement—one shaped by deliberate choices that distribute benefits widely rather than deepening divides.

Reference:
Christof Brandtner, Olav Sorenson, and Maryann Feldman. Prosperous places: Processes policies and practices. Industrial and Corporate Change, 2025. 
Seestadt Aspern, Wien (17.7.2015) by Andreas Faessler, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Institutional exclusion: the cultural production of educational inequality through college narratives

New article by Christof Brandtner in Social Forces

Sep 2, 2025

Sign on Agnes Scott Campus with the college's mission statement

Explanations of socioeconomic inequalities in college enrollment focus on college readiness, financial constraints, and information deficits. We provide a cultural explanation of educational inequalities, arguing that disadvantaged students are deterred from applying to high-status col- leges because of the shared cultural narratives employed by those colleges—a mechanism that we label “institutional exclusion.” Computational text analyses of college mission statements show that community colleges, for-profit colleges, and four-year colleges draw upon distinctively different cultural narratives. To gauge the causal effect of these narratives on student responses, we designed a survey experiment for a sample of high-school seniors. We find that the career- focused narratives of for-profit colleges are most appealing to disadvantaged students, whereas advantaged students prefer the post-materialist rhetoric of four-year colleges. We conclude that institutional exclusion should be included in sociological discussions of college inequalities and the promotion of diversity in organizations.

Reference:
Michelle Jackson and Christof Brandtner. Institutional exclusion: the cultural production of educational inequality through college narratives. Social Forces, 2025. 
Sign on Agnes Scott Campus with the College’s Mission Statement by Rbradley923, CC BY-SA 4.0.