- Conference Date
- Monday, May 24, 2027
- Format
- In-Person Conference
- Proposal deadline
- January 20, 2027
- Location
- Columbia Business School
Call for Papers
Nationalism is on the rise globally and is arguably the most powerful social and political force of the modern era. While popular debates often gravitate toward the political dimensions of this resurgence—such as nationalist politicians, authoritarian regimes, and state-level policies—this captures only part of the story. Nationalism profoundly affects businesses, markets, and broader cultural discourses. Crucially, it is also actively shaped, amplified, and mitigated by these same organizational and market forces, which serve as important mediators of the broader nationalism in politics, society, and individual attitudes.
Across the social sciences, scholars have been working to understand distinct pieces of this phenomenon. Sociologists, political scientists, and psychologists approach it through institutional, economic, and behavioral lenses. Within management and business research, scholars have explored topics such as consumer ethnocentrism, the liabilities of foreignness, multinational firms navigating host-country nationalism, and the impacts of nationalism on technology and innovation (e.g., techno-nationalism and resource nationalism). More recently, we have witnessed an “organizational turn” recognizing how firms actively engage with nationalism for both strategic and ideological reasons—a dynamic termed organizational nationalism.
Despite this rich and diverse body of work, scholarship on nationalism in economic life remains highly fragmented. There have been few concerted efforts to foster integrated conversations across disciplines, synthesize theoretical insights, or build a common community of scholars working at this intersection. This conference seeks to break down these silos and advance a cohesive scholarly understanding of the evolving relationships among nationalism, the state, markets, and organizations—while fostering an integrative community of scholars.
Suggested Themes
We invite submissions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes. Select a theme to view its guiding questions.
1The State as Investor, Regulator, and Industrial Strategist
- How do industrial policies, public investment, and the return of the “interventionist state” shape organizational behavior, resource dependence, and competitive dynamics?
- How do macro-level forces like economic nationalism, techno-nationalism, and “innovation mercantilism” drive these state interventions, and under what conditions do they successfully promote technological development and industrial upgrading?
- What roles do sovereign wealth funds, state-owned enterprises, development banks, and public-private partnerships play in enforcing economic sovereignty and shaping global organizational strategies?
- How does the state act not merely as a regulator, but as an “architect of new markets” by deploying nationalist ideology to mobilize organizations and entrepreneurs toward nation-building agendas?
- Through what mechanisms (coercive, normative, or mimetic) do state policies and regulations compel or incentivize organizations to adopt nationalist stances?
- How do firms, in turn, leverage corporate political activity—such as lobbying and campaign financing—to actively shape these protectionist state policies and industrial regulations from the bottom up?
2Nationalism as Political Ideology and Social Identity
- How does nationalism interact with other political ideologies, including populism, liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and authoritarianism?
- How does nationalism operate not merely as a political doctrine, but as a deeply rooted social identity and emotional force?
- How do emerging ideological forms like eco-nationalism, or the enduring effects of neo-colonialism, influence global business?
- Given the rise of identity-based affective polarization, how do organizations respond to or leverage these emotional divides and domestic political contestation?
- How does nationalism influence organizational strategies in the context of geopolitical rivalry, economic decoupling, and global political tensions?
3Organizational Nationalism
- How do organizations transition between the instrumental use of nationalism (e.g., tactical patriotic marketing) and deep, value-driven integration of nationalism into their core missions, cultures, and everyday practices?
- When and how do firms deploy corporate rhetorical nationalism and national symbols as strategic resources, and how do stakeholders evaluate the authenticity of these claims versus symbolic decoupling or “washing”?
- How do organizations navigate the fine line between cultivating in-group national pride and perpetuating out-group bias, xenophobia, or anti-foreignness?
- How does organizational nationalism interact with other nonmarket strategies—including corporate political activity (CPA), corporate social responsibility (CSR), and sociopolitical activism—to shape dominant societal agendas or support state nation-building projects?
- What are the performance effects and strategic trade-offs of adopting nationalist identities, particularly when securing domestic legitimacy risks alienating foreign stakeholders, partners, and investors?
4Multinational Strategy in an Era of Nationalism
- How do multinational corporations respond to rising nationalism, populism, and anti-globalization sentiments in their home and host countries?
- How do MNCs adapt their global value chains, market entry, and market exit strategies in response to geopolitical decoupling, trade wars, and state-sponsored techno-nationalism?
- How do firms overcome the heightened “liability of foreignness” when faced with host-country animosity, consumer boycotts, or regulatory protectionism?
- What roles do corporate diplomacy, nonmarket strategy, corporate social responsibility, innovation, and “geopolitical jockeying” play in managing nationalist pressures and signaling loyalty?
- How can multinational corporations balance competing national identities, institutional demands, and political expectations across diverse geographic markets without losing global cohesion?
5Nationalism, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
- How do state-sponsored innovation policies and techno-nationalism influence firms’ R&D investments, the technologies they choose to develop, cross-border R&D partnerships, and the balance between global knowledge integration and pressures for technological sovereignty?
- How do geopolitical tensions and consumer ethnocentrism alter the valuation, funding, scaling, and market evaluation of ventures or products associated with rival nations?
- How does rising nationalism—and state interventions driven by economic nationalism—create new entrepreneurial opportunities, such as national heritage brands, import-substitution ventures, or new market categories predicated on national identity?
- How do founder imprinting and national identity shape entrepreneurial purpose, venture creation, and the strategic framing of startups as champions of national interests?
- How do restrictive immigration policies, techno-nationalism, and shifting geopolitical tensions affect immigrant entrepreneurs, transnational ventures, and global diaspora networks?
6Consumer Nationalism, Branding, and Market Dynamics
- How do consumer ethnocentrism, national pride, or host-country animosity influence market evaluations, purchasing behaviors, and brand loyalty?
- How do firms construct, maintain, or repair national heritage brands, and what are the effects of “Made In” labels or patriotic marketing campaigns on consumer willingness-to-pay?
- How do consumer boycotts against foreign multinationals or rival nations unfold, and how do targeted firms navigate the ensuing reputational and financial fallout?
- How do organizations navigate the tension between appealing to domestic consumer nationalism and maintaining a cosmopolitan, globally integrated brand identity?
7Nationalism, Global Talent, and Human Resources
- How do organizations navigate nationalism-driven labor market constraints, such as restrictive immigration policies, visa caps, and tightening borders?
- How do these state-level nationalist policies affect multinational hiring strategies, such as decisions to offshore operations, relocate global talent, or restructure cross-border teams?
- How does nationalism influence employee identity, motivation, commitment, recruitment, and socialization?
- How does banal, everyday nationalism or ethnocentrism manifest in workplace routines, global work encounters, and identity politics?
- How do employees respond when an organization’s stance aligns—or conflicts—with their own political beliefs, identities, or cross-cultural values, and what are the resulting implications for leadership and organizational culture?
8Media, Populism, and Digital Nationalism
- How do digital platforms, social media, and algorithmic echo chambers amplify populist rhetoric, banal nationalism, and exclusionary practices in and around organizations?
- How do organizations navigate the reputational risks of operating in a polarized, “post-truth” society where media narratives rapidly escalate organizational actions into national-level controversies?
- How do political leaders and media outlets use linguistic micro-processes (e.g., metaphors, metonyms) to frame corporate actions—such as cross-border M&As or foreign investments—as threats to national sovereignty?
- How do global virtual workers and “digital nomads” leverage digital technologies to mobilize social movements that either resist or reinforce nationalist macroeconomic policies?
9Historical Perspectives on Nationalism and Organizations
- How have organizations, industries, and institutions co-evolved with nationalism across different historical periods, such as during state formation, colonial eras, major wars, or severe economic crises?
- How do nationalist founder imprints and early organizational values persist, evolve, or become renegotiated by successor generations as domestic and geopolitical landscapes shift over the longue durée?
- What can historical and postcolonial perspectives reveal about the enduring legacies of neo-colonialism, imperial power, and corporate-state collaborations (e.g., early multinational monopolies) in shaping contemporary organizational practices and global business?
- How do organizations navigate the long-term consequences, reputational risks, and path dependencies of past nationalist commitments?
- Under what conditions do firms strategically decouple from, distance themselves from, or de-institutionalize obsolete nationalist identities when political regimes change or global markets penalize past allegiances (e.g., post-war reputational reckonings)?
10New Methods and Emerging Phenomena
- How can advances in computational text analytics—including large language models (LLMs), multilingual sentiment analysis, and multimodal data—capture the nuance and real-time evolution of nationalist rhetoric across official corporate discourse and social media?
- How can event studies and experimental designs isolate the causal mechanisms of nationalist “shocks”—such as sudden geopolitical crises, diplomatic disputes, or policy shifts—on consumer behavior, stakeholder reactions, and short-term organizational performance?
- How can scholars better conceptualize and measure nationalism to capture its dynamic, cross-level effects—tracing how micro-level identities influence macro-level state policies and vice versa—while mitigating challenges like social desirability bias in traditional surveys?
- How can mixed-method approaches, combining deep historical case studies with large-scale survey and archival data, illuminate the complex interplay between societal nationalist sentiments and firm strategies over time?
- What new theoretical perspectives—including those challenging “epistemic colonialism” or moving beyond historically Western-centric conceptualizations—are necessary to ethically and rigorously advance the study of nationalism in global organizations?
Who Should Submit
We encourage submissions from scholars in organization theory, strategy, organizational behavior, international business, political economy, sociology, political science, public policy, history, communication, and related disciplines. We welcome conceptual, qualitative, quantitative, historical, computational, and mixed-method research that examines how nationalism shapes economic life and how organizations and markets, in turn, influence nationalism and society. By bringing together scholars across disciplines, the conference aims to develop a richer understanding of one of the defining transformations of the contemporary global economy.
Submission
Authors should submit an extended proposal that outlines the research questions, methodology, and results. The proposal should not exceed 4,000 words in total—including all charts, figures, and references—in 12-point font, single-spaced.
- Proposal dueJanuary 20, 2027
- Notification of acceptanceEarly February 2027
- Full paper (if accepted)April 15, 2027
