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Amjad Hadjikhani is a Professor of Marketing at the Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University. His research interests cover different fields of industrial, consumer and international marketing. He has published several books and articles in different scientific journals. In addition to the membership of editorial boards of a number of international journals he has also acted as special guest editor for several international scientific journals, such as IBR, JBR and IMM.

The effort in this chapter is to capture some of the relationships between the three pillars in emerging markets. It is an attempt to endow with knowledge on how MNCs manage their business, social and political relationships in emerging markets. The theoretical and empirical facts are to aid understanding of the differences between developed and emerging countries. Further, the discussions express on the heterogeneity and how the three pillars vary in between the emerging countries. The extensive difference in between these countries, the vital role of social and political relationships together with the rapid development and less developed institutional regulations is explained to challenge the MNCs when managing their businesses. The chapter affirms the weakness in the existing theoretical views and claim for the need for development of new theoretical views adapted for these economies.

The question under the focus is how an MNC manages the increasing demands for corporate social responsibility when entering and expanding in a market. Based on business network, the study develops a view highlighting the four concepts of learning, commitment, legitimacy and trust for studying of socio-political relationships. The view is employed for analysis of the experiences of a Korean MNC's entry into the Chinese market. The case illustrates that the Korean MNC, Samsung Electronics, has behaved proactively by large commitment in several long- and short-term projects towards the society. Besides the theoretical view, the study contributes new knowledge on how the MNC's activities have enabled the firm to transfer learning, commitment, legitimacy and trust from socio-political relationships to business relationships. Further, it adds new knowledge on how corporate social responsibility plays a critical role in a successful entry, thereby building up a stable market position.

With a comparative aim, the purpose of this paper is to challenge the general assumption behind relationship longevity. The question under attention is whether firms' relationship of a discontinuous nature is different from continuous relationships and if so what this diversity entails. In the essay, a conceptual view is developed and tested statistically. The ambition is to add new knowledge to the field of business relationships.

The essay's theoretical foundation rests on relationship theory and employs the four relationship behaviour elements of trust, commitment, cooperation and adaptation. Differences/similarities in the effects among these elements are tested for two types of relationships, i.e. those of continuous and discontinuous exchange, using data from 353 Swedish firms.

The results show that a firm's behaviour in continuous relationships rests on incremental change, in the sense that the relationship elements of trust, commitment, cooperation and adaptation display sequential and progressive effects. This supports the common notion of a gradual strengthening of the business relationship resulting in longevity. Contrary to this, a firm's behaviour in discontinuous relationships is guided by the level of trust, which thus forms the base for the remaining elements. The absence of incremental change in the relationship behaviour and the pivotal role of trust mean that these relationships are weaker and are faced with interruptions and interference from competitors. Thereby business firms are confronted with different marketing challenges. The differences in the relationship behaviour of the two types signify that the view of relationships indeed needs advancement.

Falling from a continuous to a discontinuous business relationship is becoming more common due to reasons such as market crises, business or firm crisis or because of the nature of the businesses as such. While earlier research studied the relationships' continuity and discontinuity separately, this paper enriches the earlier efforts and compares the two types. Understanding the differences between the two types of relationship can enrich the knowledge, not only for researchers but also for business managers.

An unprecedented economic growth and higher market uncertainty in emerging markets combined with increasing interdependence among the world economies serves as a base for this book. Contributing authors explore the behaviour of MNCs in these varied highly distinctive markets. The chapters are constructed on the thoughts that business in emerging markets is strongly embedded in the demands from society and political systems. We present thoughts and notions on interconnection between the three sectors: business, society and politics and how MNCs are managing this interaction. Compared to developed countries, authors believe that markets in emerging countries are constructed on a higher level of uncertainty due to (a) higher level of overlap and complexity in social and political systems, (b) higher level of dynamism, (c) higher level of unpredictable and critical changes in socio-political environment, (d) higher level of heterogeneities among different emerging countries. The complex interactions between these characteristics are viewed by the authors to differentiate MNCs’ management behaviour in these markets.

In this chapter one of few studies made of banks’ internationalization process in emerging markets, focusing on behaviour relating to the political environment is presented. Aiming to understand banks’ behaviour in the Russia, an analytical framework built on the internationalization process model incorporating the impact of political environment is developed. The empirical data in the chapter concern Sweden's four largest banks’ expansion into the Russian market and is presented in form of an longitudinal cross-case study with secondary data between years 1990 and 2010, collected retrospectively. The secondary data consist of newspaper articles, annual reports and press releases. Findings show that in stable periods, Swedish banks have followed the pattern of the internationalization process model when expanding into the Russian market. In periods of instability, the banks’ behaviour is heterogenic and can be opportunistic or cautious.

This chapter explores socio-political networks and cross-sectoral co-operation in the context of solving environmental problems in an emerging economy: Russia. The aim is to shed light on key success factors of cross-border co-operation involving public, business and third-sector actors. The case study on protecting the Baltic Sea analyses a Western–Russian partnership between a Finnish non-governmental organisation and a Russian water utility and its embeddedness in business and socio-political networks. We conclude that key factors of success in this case were the successful timing of the NGO's initiative, the historic platform of Finnish-Russian co-operation in the area of clean water, and the gradual building of the actors’ social networks and legitimacy. The chapter contributes to the embryonic area of CSR studies in the emerging market context and extends the legitimation, trust-building and commitment model (Hadjikhani, Lee, & Ghauri, 2008) to the context of CSR in contemporary Russia.

This chapter, against studies on success history, puts its attention on the firm's behaviour facing a critical socio-political problem. The specific question is how the relationship between business and socio-political actors in an emerging market under a scandal develops and how these actors manage such a situation. To reach this aim the study concerns with the Roche Scandal in Turkey and discusses the reactions of business and socio-political actors before and after the scandal, and further, how Roche subsequently managed these relationships. The theoretical framework for analysis of the Roche Turkey Scandal is constructed on relationship elements of trust, legitimacy and learning. The analysis provides some answers to the question of how Roche Turkey in the face of reactions given by the network actors managed the aftermath of the scandal and how the legitimacy loss was recovered by learning and adaptation. Conclusions enhance our knowledge on the behaviour of firms under critical condition.