The legitimacy defeat of Huawei in the media: Cause, context, and process

Abstract

Emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) seem to face almost continuous negative media coverage in many Western countries. Our study scrutinizes this phenomenon to examine why and how EMNEs are confronting increasing negative media coverage. We empirically examine how the British newspaper media reported on the governmental banning of Huawei from fifth-generation network development in the UK. Our findings suggest that liabilities of origin (LOR) trigger negative media coverage of EMNEs, and that the geopolitical context and media framing make LOR more salient and harmful for EMNEs in developed countries. We propose a contextualized explanation for EMNEs’ legitimacy defeats in the media by identifying the cause (i.e., LOR), context (i.e., geopolitical rivalry), and process (i.e., media framing) in such a de-legitimization mechanism. Indeed, we crystalize the matter of how the media frames LOR and de-legitimizes EMNEs. We also examine EMNEs’ voice strategies for mitigating negative media coverage and defending legitimacy.