Chinese State-Owned Multinationals’ (SOMNEs) Subsidiary nonmarket strategies in Selective De-globalization: An integrated perspective of co-evolution theory and the yin-yang perspective

Subsidiaries adopt nonmarket strategies in host countries to merit legitimacy. This conceptual paper theorizes paradoxes and nonmarket strategies for Chinese SOMNE’s subsidiaries in selective de-globalization targeting China. We enrich the well-received co-evolutionary framework in the IB literature by incorporating the yin-yang perspective into the analysis and broadening the scope of thinking beyond the economic analysis of risks and costs in political disruptions on MNE subsidiaries. Our integrated theoretical framework highlights three dynamic environments (e.g., social, geopolitical, and technological) that subsidiaries simultaneously confront and the multi-level institutional pressures within these environments. We propose three yin-yang framed nonmarket strategies — zao-shi ( 造势) (Creating favourable momentum), ying-shi (应势) (leveraging favourable momentum) and wu-wei (无为) (Active non-action, non-interference) to address the paradoxes in a de-globalized business environment.