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This study seeks to understand how business group-affiliated firms perform in emerging markets. Previous studies identify that in spite of changes in the competitive landscape, seemingly counter-intuitively, business group affiliates outperform their standalone counterparts in emerging markets. This study adopts a knowledge-based view to resolve this apparent paradox.

This study uses a problematization methodology to qualitatively analyze the strategic decisions of Indian business group-affiliated firms. This study cross-validates their analysis with the empirical results available in published academic and practitioner articles.

Previous studies explain this outperformance paradox based on assumptions that include filling institutional voids, access to strategic resources and leveraging political connections. By questioning these assumptions, this study identifies an alternative explanation that is based on affiliates’ ability to adopt a strategic approach that balances knowledge capital acquired through international expansion and innovation.

The findings have important implications for managers of business group-affiliated firms in emerging markets, as well as for those in developed markets seeking to compete or collaborate in emerging markets.

This study provides a framework for managers of business group affiliates to identify suitable pathways to higher levels of competitive advantage.

In this paper, the authors undertake a systematic analysis of multinationality–performance (M-P) literature published in the last decade, when antecedents for internationalization and moderators of the M-P relationship had attained a center stage in international business and international management research. Though M-P relationship is one of the most widely studied topics within international business literature, so far synthesis of the entire theoretical landscape is missing in extant literature.

Through keywords search process, the authors found 111 studies in management literature that look at internationalization, its antecedents, performance of internationalized firms, and moderators of the M-P relationship. The focus of this study is to identify theoretical foundations used to explain the antecedents and moderators in M-P relationship, in order to suggest the future research direction for the field. The authors classify the antecedents and moderators based on their theoretical underpinnings not only to identify commonly used theoretical foundations in the last 10 years of international strategy research but also to highlight potential areas for future research.

The authors’ analysis indicates that research on international strategy in the last decade was dominated by theory testing in the context of developed economies. The authors’ review suggests that majority of the antecedents and moderators in the M-P relationship are anchored within institutional theory, organizational structure, resource-based view, social capital, and upper echelon theory.

The authors’ findings are indicative of a rich research potential of M-P relationship in the contextual research setting of emerging markets while leveraging more diversified theoretical bases and multiple levels of research design.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the existing mechanism through which business group affiliated firms in emerging markets (EMs) continue to generate superior performance.

The authors build our argument on the basis of how business group affiliation in EM facilitates internationalization and investment into innovation in affiliated firms compared to un-affiliated firm, resulting in higher firm performance. The authors use advance statistical modeling – causal mediation analysis to separate direct effect and indirect effect of business group affiliation in EM on performance through internationalization and investment into innovation of business group affiliated firms as mediating variables.

Based on 122,479 observations (firm year) from 17,235 Indian business group affiliated and un-affiliated firms, the findings help to identify that internationalization and investment into innovation of business group affiliated firms do have a mediating role in affiliation–performance relationship for EM business groups.

This study unravels the existing causal chain between business group affiliation in EMs and subsequent performance of affiliated firms. The authors complement institutional argument for superior performance of business group affiliation and focus on the performance implication of mediating strategic decisions in affiliated firms.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by independent writers who add their own impartial comments and place the articles in context.

In patriarchal societies such as India, there is great reluctance to allow women to take up leadership roles. Although the benefits of gender diversity in board composition are understood by organizations, there is limited progress. The government, companies and women who are potential board members all need to coordinate and work together towards solving this issue in the long run.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to report on an inductive research that analyzes the unique decisions of three firms that shape their business model and, consequently, provide a competitive advantage.

Given the paucity of prior research on the effect that a firm’s business model has on its competitive advantage, addressing the research question warrants an in-depth qualitative study. The study requires explicitly capturing decisions from a firm’s chosen business model and how these decisions are linked to its competitive advantage. The authors take on an inductive research approach to study three longitudinal case studies of organizations that have either successfully implemented their adopted business model or are implementing unique business models.

First, the authors identify nine different theoretically grounded propositions based on decisions taken by the firms the authors studied, which shape their business model and give them a competitive advantage. Second, the authors look at these decisions in an integrated manner and categorize these into structural decisions and strategic decisions. Third, the authors extend an existing line of thought that predominantly views the business model as complementary to a firm’s product or service innovation. The authors emphasize on the criticality of the business model as a higher level construct formed from multiple structural and strategic decisions that, eventually, become a source of competitive advantage.

The findings help to identify a possible theoretical explanation of newer forms of organization, evolving from product, process or service innovation, combined with their unique business model. They help in guiding practitioners to identify sources of competitive advantage through the innovative business models.