International business scholars have recognized the impact of political and economic nationalism on the multinational enterprise (MNE). We complement these approaches by highlighting the sociological manifestations of nationalism and their implications for the MNE. We argue that nationalist sentiments, i.e., widely shared assumptions of superiority over other nations and cultures, constitute an under-researched but critical element in international business (IB). Drawing insights from organizational sociology, we elucidate how nationalist sentiments manifest in the MNE’s external and internal environment. Specifically, we suggest that nationalist sentiments accentuate national institutional logics, generate status-based categorizations of foreign and domestic firms, and heighten emphasis on national organizational identities. These manifestations impact the MNE’s operations by limiting room for hybridization of dissimilar practices and routines, increasing the risk of discrimination and stereotyping by local audiences, and entrenching resistance to foreign ideas and practices among organizational members. We suggest that MNEs have three strategic choices in responding to nationalist sentiments: avoid their manifestations, mitigate their implications, or leverage nationalist sentiments to the MNE’s advantage. In sum, our framework provides a starting point for IB scholars to examine the strategic implications of nationalist sentiments for the MNE.

国际商业学者已经认识到政治和经济民族主义对跨国企业（MNE）的影响。我们通过强调民族主义的社会学表现及其对跨国企业的影响来补充这些方法。我们认为，民族主义情绪，即普遍认为优于其他国家和文化的假设，构成了国际商务（IB）中研究不足但至关重要的要素。我们借鉴组织社会学的见解，阐明民族主义情绪如何在跨国公司的外部和内部环境中体现。具体来说，我们建议民族主义情绪强调国家制度逻辑，对国内外企业进行基于地位的分类，并更加强调国家组织身份。这些表现形式限制了不同做法和惯例混合的空间，增加了当地受众歧视和成见的风险，并加深了组织成员对外国思想和做法的抵制，从而影响了跨国企业的运营。我们建议跨国企业在应对民族主义情绪时可以采取三种战略选择：避免其表现、减轻其影响或利用民族主义情绪为跨国企业带来优势。总之，我们的框架为国际文凭学者研究民族主义情绪对跨国公司的战略影响提供了一个起点。