Beyond MNE-Centric Paradigms

Reconceptualizing the Mechanisms of Workforce Localization, with Ali Faqihi and Cathy (Ying) Xu.

Highlights

Workforce localization policies requiring private-sector employment of host-country nationals has generated substantial scholarly attention, yet this literature remains conceptually fragmented and empirically siloed. Through a systematic review of 85 articles published between 2000 and 2025, we examine how localization has been theorized, which actors receive analytic attention, and what mechanisms link institutional pressures to organizational and individual outcomes. Our analysis reveals that the field is dominated by an MNE-centric paradigm that frames localization as a managerial problem of expatriate substitution, efficiency optimization, and legitimacy acquisition. This framing privileges multinational subsidiaries as the primary site of analysis. We synthesize these divergent perspectives by identifying three recurrent causal chains that connect institutional motivations to organizational practices and worker outcomes. These chains illuminate how the same policy instrument produces radically different consequences depending on design features, enforcement mechanisms, and organizational responses. Our review demonstrates that conceptualizations of localization systematically differ in their identification of agency, and assumptions about whose interests are served.

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Faqihi, A., Wechtler, H, & Xu, X. (2026). Reconceptualizing the Mechanisms of Workforce Localization. Doctoral thesis, Ali Faqihi, University of Newcastle.