Where it was presented

On October 23, 2026, Kilian McCarthy presented the findings at the Journal of Management Studies workshop at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. The workshop presented and discussed the journal's upcoming special issue on management under geopolitical tension.

Share of companies by country that fully exited the market:

● Finland: over 60%● USA: 21%● Netherlands: 12%● Poland: 7%
The authors explain the gap by the fact that a company decides whether to exit by weighing three groups of factors at once: political, reputational, and organizational.

What this means for Ukraine

According to the study, a company decides whether to leave the market by weighing political, reputational, and organizational factors simultaneously. As a result, identical pressure on business produces different outcomes.
This is best seen at the country level. Finnish companies exited Russia more than 8 times as often as Polish ones, and almost three times as often as American ones. Yet all of them received the same calls from Ukraine and international institutions.

For corporate responsibility campaigns, three conclusions follow:

● General appeals have limited effect. A blanket "leave Russia" message, the same for everyone, persuades only some companies because different companies have different sets of push and pull factors● The argument must be tailored to the company. For some, the decisive factor is their home government's position; for others, reputation among customers and investors; for others still, internal business constraints.● Resources should be focused where pressure can work. The data show in which countries and groups of companies exits happen more often, and where other instruments are needed.
For government bodies, civil society organizations, and Ukraine's international partners, this research becomes a basis for more precise planning. Pressure can be built on data about what actually influences a specific company's decision, rather than on general appeals.