Navigating Entrepreneurial Orientation Paradoxes Under the Cross-Border Stigma: An Organizational Virtue Perspective

Abstract Emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs) characterized by strong entrepreneurial orientation (EO) can generate cross-border value through their innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking in international operations. However, evolving global dynamics and rising geopolitical tensions have increased pressures of cross-border stigmatization, significantly hindering EMNEs’ ability to leverage their EO. Grounded in paradox theory and organizational virtue, the study aims to explore how EMNEs can navigate the EO paradoxes within cross-border stigma contexts. Through an abductive longitudinal case study of a leading Chinese-headquartered valve manufacturing firm, we find that as stigma labels evolve from product to technology and finally to identity, they trigger three phase-specific EO paradoxes: expansion vs. contraction, innovation vs. commodification, and autonomy vs. control. To navigate these salient tensions, the firm enacts organizational virtue as a strategic practice. Specifically, we identify a mechanism where temperance-oriented values articulation guides the firm’s strategic actions through a dual process—internal capability development and external differentiation—both underpinned by the micro-mechanisms of emotional and desire temperance. With these findings, the study identifies a stigmatization trajectory from product to technology and further to identity stigma. It also reveals EO paradoxical tensions across different developmental stages of EMNEs under cross-border stigmatization. Furthermore, our study extends virtue research into the field of entrepreneurship at the organizational level. It establishes temperance as a source of strategic practice that enables sustainable international entrepreneurship by effectively balancing EO, thereby providing a virtue perspective for strategic management in complex environments.