Dr C.T. (Caroline) Witte
Caroline Witte is an assistant professor at the department of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship. Her research interest cover international business, strategy and development economics. She is particularly interested in how firms manage their business in in fragile economies. In her research, she asks: ‘How can firms in fragile economies take advantage of a volatile institutional context?’ And more generally: ‘How can firms exploit the opportunities created by risk, uncertainty and discontinuous shocks?’.
Before joining RSM, Caroline was assistant professor of strategy and international management at the Department of Strategy and Innovation of the Copenhagen Business School. She has a PhD from the Erasmus School of Economics. Her PhD disseration was awarded the prestigious Dissertation Award of the International Management Division of the Academy of Management.
PhD Track Bloody business: Multinational investment in an increasingly conflict-afflicted world
Over the last few years, the world has been shocked by a new wave of political conflict, including the events of the Arab Spring and the conflict in Ukraine. This dissertation evaluates the causes of political conflict and its consequences for investments by multinational enterprises (MNEs). The studies that are part of this thesis aim to improve our understanding of the relationships between political conflict, investment and ultimately human prosperity. These three concepts are interdisciplinary in nature and the different chapters included in this thesis reflect this. By combining conceptual frameworks and methodologies from economics and business research, they shed light on the increasing levels of political conflict and the reaction of firms to this development.
In the first part of this thesis, the causes of non-violent political conflict are examined. The findings demonstrate that a decrease in subjective well-being (i.e. happiness) can motivate citizens to engage in acts of civil resistance. In the second part, the consequences of armed political conflict for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) are examined. The effect of political violence on greenfield FDI is heterogeneous across types of violence, sectors and firms, falsifying the claim that all FDI flows are negatively affected by political violence. In addition, the results indicate that similar to international conflict, internal wars can disturb existing relationships between the MNEs’ home and host country
- Keywords
- Political conflict, FDI, Subjective Wellbeing, Armed conflict, war, civil resistance, non-violent uprisings, colonial ties, natural resources, political risk.
- Time frame
- 2013 - 2018
Publications
Article (4)
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Academic (4)
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Larsen, M. M., & Witte, C. (2022). Informal Legacy and Exporting Among Sub-Saharan African Firms. Organization Science, 34(3), 987-1003. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1623
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Witte, C., Burger, M., & Ianchovichina, E. (2020). Subjective well-being and peaceful uprisings. Kyklos, 73(1), 120-158. https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12219
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Witte, C., Burger, M., & Pennings, E. (2020). When political instability devaluates home-host ties. Journal of World Business, 55(4), Article 101077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2020.101077
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Witte, C., Burger, M., Ianchovichina, E., & Pennings, E. (2017). Dodging bullets: the heterogeneous effect of political violence on greenfield FDI. Journal of International Business Studies, 48(7), 862-892. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-017-0079-7
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Chapter (1)
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Academic (1)
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Witte, C. (2022). Why and How Might the Modern MNE Respond Strategically to Violent Conflict: A Commentary. In M. A. Mithani, R. Narula, & A. Verbeke (Eds.), Crises and Disruptions in International Business How Multinational Enterprises Respond to Crises (pp. 111-119). Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-80383-4_6
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Doctoral Thesis (1)
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Internal (1)
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Witte, C. (2015). Bloody Business: Multinational investment in an increasingly conflict-afflicted world. [Doctoral Thesis, Erasmus University Rotterdam]. Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR).
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Editorial (1)
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Popular (1)
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Witte, C., & Dilyard, J. (2017). Guest editors' introduction to the special issue: The contribution of multinational enterprises to the Sustainable Development Goals. Transnational Corporations, 24(3), 1-8.
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Event (1)
Address
Burgemeester Oudlaan 50
3062 PA Rotterdam
Postbus 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands
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