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This study describes how a multinational enterprise (MNE) gains acceptance after rebranding acquired brands from different countries among its internal and external stakeholders and identifies factors that influence this process.

The study employed a single case-study approach, including 18 semi-structured in-depth interviews with employees of a firm involved in the rebranding process in six countries. The countries are Sweden, Germany, the United States, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.

The findings reveal how the MNE integrated brands it acquired in different international markets into one overarching corporate brand. The study shows that in emerging countries, external legitimation (external implementation process, country profiles and customer buy-in) constitutes the most significant challenge. By contrast, in developed countries, internal legitimation (employee buy-in and internal implementation process) is more challenging.

The study contributes to and extends the rebranding literature by using a legitimation lens to analyze the rebranding process. This lens shows how internal and external stakeholders are both crucial to successful rebranding. The study provides a comprehensive perspective of the process, identifies challenging factors and differentiates between their importance in emerging and developed countries.

To address the dearth of research on how firms legitimize a new brand in different national contexts, the study compares the rebranding process in multiple countries and discusses the factors influencing the rebranding process.

The scholarly discourse concerning the significance of relational embeddedness within multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries has reached a stage of maturity, albeit with fragmentation. In light of this, this paper aims to delineate hot topics that can serve as a promising research trajectory for future investigations into the phenomenon of relational embeddedness in MNC subsidiaries.

Through a systematic literature review, the authors examined 66 articles published between 1998 and 2022, sourced from two prominent databases: Scopus and Web of Science. To ensure the rigor of the investigation, the authors specifically focused on articles published in journals accredited with a minimum two-star rating according to the ABS (2021) criteria.

In the systematic review, the authors delineated four principal themes addressed in the literature concerning subsidiaries and relational embeddedness. Within these themes, the authors identified five underexplored research avenues that hold promise for future studies on relational embeddedness within the context of subsidiaries: (a) the question of the dark side of relational embeddedness, (b) the development of a global construct for relational embeddedness, (c) understanding how the social factors of relational embeddedness relate to each other, (d) the gains that local partners have in developing relational embeddedness with subsidiaries of foreign MNCs and how this relationship is moderated by the institutional environment and (e) the impact of internal.

While this study drew upon two major databases, future researchers are encouraged to explore alternative repositories to ensure the thoroughness of the findings. Another limitation of this study pertains to the chosen set of keywords, which did not encompass literature on innovation collaboration or knowledge flows within foreign subsidiaries. These areas are interconnected with the knowledge management literature and relational embeddedness, warranting attention in future investigations.

The managerial insights cater to two distinct cohorts: multinational subsidiary managers, equipping them with insights into leveraging relational strategies effectively and managers of partner companies, facilitating informed decision-making in optimizing access to subsidiary knowledge and resources.

In addition to facilitating the consolidation of fragmented literature, this study has identified five theoretical gaps that remain insufficiently explored within research utilizing the relational embeddedness framework in the context of MNC subsidiaries. Consequently, this research serves as an inaugural step for future investigations, elucidating specific avenues ripe for further exploration in the field.