The Multinational Corporation as a Playing Field of Power: A Bourdieusian Approach
Abstract
Kostova, Roth and Dacin called in 2008 for the advancement of a theoretical conception of the multinational corporation (MNC) that takes into account both power relationships among actors and the structure of its internal institutional field. While micro-political scholars of MNCs have started to answer the former part of the call regarding power, the second part has not been thoroughly addressed yet. Furthermore, the agentic aspects typical of power games and the structural aspects characterizing institutional fields have not been fully combined in a multi-level perspective of MNCs so far. Leaning on Bourdieu, we suggest an answer to the pending call. We theorize the MNC as a playing field of power emerging around the issue of finding a meta-rate of conversion of the actors’ capitals constituted in national fields. We conceive such issue field in a dynamic state due to the constant entry and exit of new players (e.g. through mergers, acquisitions or divestitures). This results in the need to continuously test the validity of exchange rates. The role of the metainstitutional field level of the MNC as a global category is also discussed.
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While organizational hybridity can explain how competing spaces like TCU/NASNTI institutions and college athletics can coexist in a hybrid organization model, the development of the EIF reflects a clear alignment to the internal institutional field.
“While organizational hybridity can explain how competing spaces like TCU/NASNTI institutions and college athletics can coexist in a hybrid organization model, the development of the EIF reflects a clear alignment to the internal institutional field (Delmestri & Brumana, 2017).”
From “It’s Not Just About Competition – It’s Ceremony”: Introducing the Embedded Indigeneity Framework for Understanding Identity, Mission, and Practice in TCU and NASNTI Athletics (2026) · cites this paper as Delmestri & Brumana, 2017
The internal institutional field posits that while different components of the same organization can vary by guiding logics (athletics vs academics), the overarching institutional logic (indigeneity) guides the operations of both areas.
“The internal institutional field posits that while different components of the same organization can vary by guiding logics (athletics vs academics), the overarching institutional logic (indigeneity) guides the operations of both areas.”
From “It’s Not Just About Competition – It’s Ceremony”: Introducing the Embedded Indigeneity Framework for Understanding Identity, Mission, and Practice in TCU and NASNTI Athletics (2026) · cites this paper as Delmestri & Brumana, 2017
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Foster, S., & Welch, N. (2026) · Journal of Intercollegiate Sport · doi:10.17161/jis.v19i3.24806
“While organizational hybrid-ity can explain how competing spaces like TCU/NASNTI institutions and college athletics can coexist in a hybrid organization model, the development of the EIF reflects a clear alignment to the internal institutional field (Delmestri & Brumana, 2017).”
- Authors
- Delmestri, G., & Brumana, M.
- Venue
- Multinational Corporations and Organization Theory: Post Millennium Perspectives
- Publisher
- Emerald Publishing Limited
- Published
- 2017-02-24
- Pages
- 325-353
- OpenAlex
- W2296880943
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 9.74
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Emerald Group Publishing Limited eBooks (publishedVersion)
- WU Research (publishedVersion)
- Aisberg (University of Bergamo) (submittedVersion)
- IRIS - Institutional Research Information System (Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › International Business and FDI
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism
- Keywords
- multinational corporations, power relations, institutional field, Pierre Bourdieu, micropolitics, exchange rates, mergers and acquisitions, divestiture, multi-level perspective
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