Role of media in the formation of liability of origin: The case of Huawei and western business press
No Thumbnail Available
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2022
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Management and International Business (MIB)
Language
en
Pages
60 + 43
Series
Abstract
Liability of origin (LOR) has been perceived as highly relevant to MNEs from emerging markets. Among various stakeholders, the role of media, which is powerful in contemporary business world, has become an interesting lens. Huawei, as an MNE from an emerging market, has been portrayed in a mixed way in western business press from 2012 to 2019 when it tried hard to conduct its internationalization strategy. The goal of this thesis is to learn how Huawei has portrayed in western business press from 2012 to 2019 during when Huawei truly became as a leader of the global telecom sector as well as understand the role of media, specifically media discourse and media framing organizational legitimation and ultimately in the formation of Huawei’s LOR. The research is qualitative in nature and is based on social constructionism. Longitudinal explanatory case study is used as a research methodology to examine how portrayal of Huawei is created through media discourse and to understand the role of media in the formation of Huawei’s LOR. The research material consists of 228 articles that discuss China and Huawei, published in Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Financial Times (FT) between 2012 and 2019. Coding is the main research technique to analysis the data, and four categories are identified, including home country image, corporate image, and host country’s interests. According to the findings, the WSJ and FT have similar portrayal of China but have divergent portrayal of Huawei. Host country’s interests have an impact on portrayal of Huawei as well. More importantly, the FT’s portrayal is fluctuated from 2012 to 2019. It can be concluded that home country image, corporate image, and host country’s interests as media discourses serves differently in the media framing and ultimately in the formation of Huawei’s LOR. Meanwhile, Huawei’s engagement with WSJ and FT is limited, especially with WSJ. It is important for Huawei to build better image of itself and its home country and understand host country’s institutions and interests. Furthermore, Huawei needs to be more engaged with WSJ and FT to alleviate its LOR.Description
Thesis advisor
Seristö, HannuXu, Sen
Keywords
liability of origin, organizational legitimacy, Huawei, media discourse, media framing, stakeholder theory, institutions