National identity rhetoric under bilateral geopolitical tensions: evidence from Taiwanese MNEs

When geopolitical tensions pit home and host audiences against each other, how do multinational enterprises (MNEs) respond? We examine MNEs’ organizational identity work directed at external audiences under bilateral geopolitical tensions, where efforts to gain acceptance from one side may provoke backlash from the other. Focusing on MNEs’ national identity rhetoric—how firms use language to emphasize or downplay national affiliation—we analyze longitudinal data (2001–2020) from the public communications of two Taiwan-originated MNEs, Foxconn and TSMC, which operate amid the geopolitical dynamics of the Taiwan Strait. Our analysis identifies four rhetorical strategies—augmenting-localizing, augmenting-globalizing, ambiguating, and affirming—through which MNEs manage tensions associated with the expression of national affiliation. We theorize how the deployment of these strategies varies according to two key contingencies: the level of bilateral geopolitical tension and the MNE’s resource dependence on the host economy. We find that rising geopolitical tensions increase pressure on firms to actively calibrate their home identity, while host-country resource dependence shapes the extent to which firms accommodate host audiences. By highlighting rhetoric as a mechanism through which MNEs strategically manage national identity, this research contributes to the literature on MNEs’ responses to increasingly polarized geopolitical environments.