Emerging multinationals: home and host country determinants and outcomes

Citation

(2010), "Emerging multinationals: home and host country determinants and outcomes", International Journal of Emerging Markets, Vol. 5 No. 3/4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoem.2010.30105caa.001

Emerging multinationals: home and host country determinants and outcomes

Article Type: Editor’s note From: International Journal of Emerging Markets, Volume 5, Issue 3/4

Volume 5 of International Journal of Emerging Markets (IJoEM) has a special event to celebrate – the publication of a double special issue by Peter Gammeltoft, Jaya Prakash Pradhan and Andrea Goldstein. When I was presented with the proposal by Dr Gammeltoft, I was extremely excited by the topic since it is close to my own research interests and is so current that I believed our readership should have an opportunity to benefit from the detailed and painstaking research done by the authors.

When Dr Gammeltoft informed me that he had enough quality papers for a double issue, I was in a quandary. We had not published such a special issue before – our basic policy is to have one single special issue per volume but I was so intrigued by the work, I accepted to publish a double special issue. As Editor, I am extremely happy to present to you the collected work in this double issue.

In the light of the global economic crisis, it is becoming abundantly clear that the global balance of economic power is shifting from developed to emerging markets. Economic growth rates in developed countries will continue to be below trend for sometime given the massive debt overhang and government fiscal drag on their economies. Consequently, growth opportunities will remain limited in developed economies for companies based there. At the same time, the emergence of companies from developing countries – emerging market multinationals (EMNCs) mean that competition will be even fiercer than before the crisis. Moreover, the EMNCs are based in countries that are growing again – notably Brazil, India and China. They also benefit from considerable cost advantages and in the case of some companies, access to subsidized capital (through partial or full state ownership).

In short, we expect that some of the EMNCs of today should emerge as global competitors tomorrow. Studying the development, pathways and strategies of the EMNCs is therefore of great interest to scholars of international business and strategic management. Our double special issue is a major contribution to this scholarly effort.

In their own editorial, Gammeltoft et al. have provided a detailed synopsis of the papers in the special issue so I will not duplicate effort here. Suffice to say that I am pleased by the quality and rigor of these papers and I strongly encourage our readers to delve into the empirical and conceptual work offered.

Last but not least, I want to thank the Special Issue Editors who have been prompt with all deadlines. As ever, IJoEM’s success is due in large part to the tireless efforts of Martyn Lawrence and Jessica Davis at Emerald.