Engaging with geopolitical uncertainty : discursive riskwork and western MNEs’ divestment announcements at the onset of the Ukraine War

Mavretić, Ana (author), Vangeli, Anastas (author)

This paper studies the geopolitical riskwork practices employed by Western multinational enterprises (MNEs) in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, focusing specifically on divestment announcements. Using a discursive riskwork framework, the study analyses how Western MNEs articulate and legitimize their divestment decisions in a novel geopolitical context. The findings reveal that Western MNEs align their corporate actions with emerging liberal geopolitical norms and values, thereby rhetorically establishing their role as responsible geopolitical actors. The paper advances the discourse-oriented study of international business phenomena, the study of geopolitical risk management beyond adherence to sanctions and reputation management, the concept of riskwork, and the empirical studies of divestment announcements.

• Language: English
• Keywords: multinational enterprises, geopolitical uncertainty, riskwork, divestment, Russia–Ukraine conflict
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 265-283
• Numbering: Vol. 26, iss. 4, article no. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-166419
• UDC: 005.3
• ISSN on article: 2335-4216
• DOI: 10.15458/2335-4216.1348
• COBISS.SI-ID: 218460419
• Publication date in RUL: 10.01.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Economic and business review
• Publisher: Ekonomska fakulteta
• ISSN: 2335-4216
• COBISS.SI-ID: 268649216

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: Ukrajina, mednarodno podjetje, vojne, negotovost

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0177-2022
• Name: Slovenija in njeni akterji v mednarodnih odnosih in evropskih integracijah