Status is an important intangible asset, yet when firms enter new countries, they lack standing in new social hierarchies as outsiders. Conventional wisdom suggests embeddedness in host-country networks can alleviate newcomers’ liability of outsidership. We complement this with insights from status signaling theory: Newcomers in host countries can address their liability of outsidership through the visual display of social affiliations. We utilize a novel visual qualitative research approach that analyzes annual report photographs of an emerging-market family business, depicting the firm’s leaders with high-status alters. Complementing the international business literature, which emphasizes strong ties to host-country business partners, we identify three signaling mechanisms that are more circuitous: bypass (host-country affiliations beyond the firm’s industry), allusion (global affiliations beyond the host country and industry, often celebrities), and aspiration (global industry affiliations). We also suggest that such diffuse status signaling mechanisms may be especially salient in emerging-market family firms investing in developed markets, which are accorded low status in many developed markets. These firms feature firm/owner identity overlaps, long leader tenures, and a tendency to build reputation through prosocial behavior, facilitating the activation of status signaling tactics through ephemeral affiliations with high-status actors situated in world society.

地位是一项重要的无形资产，但当企业进入新的国家时，它们在新的社会阶层中缺乏作为局外人的地位。传统观点认为，融入东道国网络可以减轻新来者的局外人责任。我们用地位信号理论的见解来补充这一点：东道国的新移民可以通过社会关系的视觉展示来解决他们的局外人责任。我们利用一种新颖的视觉定性研究方法来分析新兴市场家族企业的年度报告照片，描绘了该公司的高层领导者。国际商业文献强调与东道国商业伙伴的紧密联系，对此我们进行了补充，我们确定了三种更为迂回的信号机制：旁路（东道国从属关系超出公司的行业）、暗示（全球从属关系超出东道国和行业，通常是名人）和愿望（全球行业关系）。我们还认为，这种分散的地位信号机制在投资于发达市场的新兴市场家族企业中可能尤其突出，而这些企业在许多发达市场中的地位较低。这些公司的特点是公司/所有者身份重叠、领导者任期较长，并且倾向于通过亲社会行为建立声誉，通过与世界社会中地位较高的参与者的短暂联系来促进地位信号策略的激活。