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This paper aims to clarify the challenge of emerging countries’ firms regarding their brand policy. The purpose of the paper is to examine the branding options offered to emerging countries companies when expanding internationally.

After having clarified the two paradoxes faced by emerging countries’ brands by way of synthesizing various works, the author formulates a model that provides a representation for the possible brand strategy choices of emerging country companies.

The authors formulate a framework with four brand management options which may be put into practice in emerging countries’ companies and suggest how an emerging country’s company could create and develop the best-adapted international brand policy depending on its specific situation regarding localness emphasis and customers’ risk reduction acceptance.

Results lead to the conclusion that the notion that only global brands are associated with higher product quality or prestige (in relation to local brands) is not a universal truth and thus needs to be interpreted with caution. The research provides support for a branding strategy embedded in the local emerging countries context and tally with research showing that more and more firms from emerging economies are using foreign image association strategies as important components of their branding and marketing strategies.

The proposal reinforces the contingency perspective of international marketing according to which brand policy may depend on company criteria, as well as foreign market specificities. The research confirms the competitive capacity of emerging countries’ companies’ brands, broadens the scope of international branding knowledge by shifting the focus to under-researched regions of the world.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the internationalization characteristics of companies from an emerging market (internationalized company stage and presence of a sales subsidiary abroad) moderate the influence of country of brand origin positioning over the companies' financial performance.

The authors performed an ex-post-facto study of internationalized companies from Brazil spanning 16 years. Generalized estimating equations in panel data revealed the results with market share, return on assets (ROA) and Tobin's Q as dependent variables.

The result revealed that country of brand origin positioning is worth doing for internationalized companies from an emerging market, especially for multinationals with sales activity in the destination country. It positively affects all three financial metrics. For exporters, it is effective in increasing market share and returns on assets.

The research demonstrates the effectiveness of the image positioning of exporting and multinational companies that have internationalization initiatives and allocation of external sales activities.

In emerging markets, country of brand origin positioning is a branding strategy used by companies seeking to internationalize. This research shows that the contexts of the characteristics of internationalization strategies change the results, and therefore the need to be considered for testing the effectiveness of country-of-brand-origin positioning.

This study aims to investigate how brand name (home-emerging-country vs foreign-developed-country brand name) applied by emerging market company in conjunction with revealing the actual country-of-brand-origin (COBO) (revealed vs non-revealed origin from developed vs emerging country) affects purchase intensions of durable goods.

An experimental conjoint analysis and multilevel linear models were applied.

Results demonstrate that brand name differentiates consumers’ purchase intentions. However, not every foreign-developed-country brand name may lead to the increase of purchase intentions. Revealing the actual emerging market’s COBO for brands with developed-country brand name may lead to lowering purchase intentions. Moreover, consumer ethnocentrism and materialism moderate the relationship between the brand type in terms of brand name and purchase intentions.

This study contributes to the international marketing literature by simultaneous examination of the impact of brand name type and revealing actual COBO on purchase intentions and the moderating effects of ethnocentrism and materialism, in emerging markets’ context. It also offers novel insights for brand managers regarding the influence of emerging markets’ companies branding strategies on consumer purchase intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the approaches used by researchers in examining the influences of external factors towards voluntary disclosure in emerging countries.

The data collected in this study were collected through a review of empirical literature based on 35 articles published between 1998 and 2013. The sample articles on the link between external factors and the level of voluntary disclosure were located by searching keywords in the most relevant social science research databases such as Business Source Premier, Emerald full text, JSTOR, Science Direct, Scopus, and Social Science Research Network.

The result reveals that research in voluntary disclosure practices by companies in emerging countries remains low. The majority of studies employed content analysis to examine the extent of voluntary disclosure practices. Results from studies show that greater regulatory enforcement in the region and increase in stakeholders’ comprehension about their rights and choices with regards to business activities can influence the majority of the companies to provide voluntary disclosure. The literature revealed that social responsibility and environmental information are the popular categories of voluntary disclosure while risk and human capital/intellectual capital are the least popular categories.

The paper is limited to a review of 35 articles.

The study provides avenues for policy makers and regulators to carry out reforms on voluntary disclosure practices.

The findings may provide insights to capital market regulators when conducting effective regulation and supervision of information transparency in listed companies.

Since limited studies exist that examine voluntary disclosure in emerging countries, little is known about the implications of external factors such as a country’s policy, regulations, stakeholders, and business environment on voluntary disclosure practices. This paper contributes to filling this gap by a review of articles of empirical research on voluntary disclosure in emerging countries.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on emerging market companies that internationalize into advanced economies by means of acquisitions and to investigate brand management during post-acquisition integration from a multi-level perspective and to identify how a brand management strategy can be constructed. It takes into account the influences of country-of-origin image, corporate brand and brand portfolio to obtain a granular view of post-acquisition brand management.

A multiple case study approach was adopted. By using case studies and storytelling qualitative research methods, the empirical setting was related to the acquisitions undertaken by Chinese companies in Germany.

The authors identified three mechanisms for brand management in the post-acquisition integration of emerging market companies – namely, transferring, dynamically redeploying and categorizing – that underpin the interconnection and combined influence of country-of-origin image at the national level, corporate brand at the organizational level and brand portfolio at the product level.

Brand has been viewed as a strategic asset in Chinese cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Brand management is a dynamic process that involves learning and interaction between the acquirer and target. The research offers a practical guideline for both acquirers and targets in managing brand in the context of acquisitions undertaken by emerging market companies in advanced economies.

The findings provide important insights into the brand management strategies adopted in Chinese cross-border M&As in particular, and emerging market companies venturing into advanced economies in general. The interlinking of country, company and product levels introduces new ideas to the brand literature related to acquisitions, and the setting of Chinese companies acquiring German ones constitutes an important contribution to the understanding of the different ways in which companies from emerging economies may pursue branding strategies in the context of cross-border M&As.

Our understanding of the influence of institutional conditions on process innovation is still limited, despite managers’ need to know which factors should be considered in decision-making and governments should be aware of how to foster process innovation through the provision of attractive institutions. Therefore, this paper aims to examine how institutional dimensions such as workforce, political instability, labor regulation, corruption, tax administration and transportation influence process innovation in smaller firms located in emerging countries other than the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

A data set from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys questioning over 20,000 companies from 41 emerging countries supplemented by the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for each country was used and analyzed by the means of general linear mixed models. The analysis emphasized small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and excluded BRICS countries.

The findings demonstrate which institutional factors matter for process innovation depending on company size and GDP.

This paper advances research on the influence of institutions on firm innovation – the institution–process innovation relationship in emerging countries other than the BRICS in particular. By considering the role of company size and GDP per capita on the institution–process innovation relationship, the paper offers more nuanced insights compared with prior studies and thus makes a strong contribution to the innovation theory. The data used are not suitable for a longitudinal study the same refers to capturing the variety found in the countries even those coming from the same geographic area.

The results provide practitioners, e.g. managers of SMEs, with concrete ideas on how to improve process innovation in their companies. Other actors such as policymakers too can benefit from the results as they will allow the design of more target group-oriented measures, aspects that can ultimately lead to more sustainable businesses.

By focusing on process innovation and emerging countries, the paper contributes to growing research efforts in emerging countries beyond the BRICS. Thus, the results add more diversity to the study of process innovation and its influencing external (institutional) factors. The emphasis on SMEs also allows us to highlight differences between different categories of SMEs.

Research on international retailing has generally emanated from Europe and North America. Nonetheless, retailers from emerging countries can also be important players in regional markets. The purpose of this paper is to explore how retailers from emerging markets can become strong enough to compete internationally.

The study examines a longitudinal case study of the internationalisation process of Falabella, a Chilean retailer that has recently become an important player in the Latin America retail industry. Drawing on 32 interviews with company managers, as well as industry data and corporate reports, this paper provides insights into the successful internationalisation process of a retailer from an emerging country.

The paper offers insights into emerging market internationalisation. In particular, these findings suggest that specific capabilities and resources, such as local and regional partnerships, organisational learning, innovation orientation, adaptation to the local markets, and an experienced management team, are required for emerging market retailers to internationalise and improve their likelihood of success in foreign markets.

This paper explores an underdeveloped topic through the analysis of a longitudinal case study. Thus, it is necessary to further expand this line of research and investigate other emerging market retailers.

This study raises a number of important issues for emerging market retail managers that are reluctant to expand abroad and compete with large multinationals from developed markets, or that are struggling with their actual internationalisation process.

To date, the retail internationalisation literature has focused on the international experiences of firms from developed nations. However, there is a gap in the literature as to how retailers from emerging countries can become strong enough to compete internationally.

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to present a new approach that will enable marketers in developing and emerging countries to promote their products, irrespective of their country of origin’s image. Many companies in emerging and developing countries, intent on exporting their products/services, struggle to overcome the negative “made-in” image barrier. Despite tremendous efforts by the governments of these countries to change the unfavorable image of products made there, their good quality products are still perceived as inferior compared to companies whose products are “made-in” in countries with a positive image, mainly developed countries.

The proposed conceptual model hinges on two dimensions – global political status and human capital capabilities. Using this framework, four different types of country destination positioning emerge, each with its own country branding strategy.

Companies from emerging and developing countries can compete on an equal footing with Western companies by changing their country branding strategy. Companies from countries such as China and Costa Rica can promote themselves better by implementing region and continent branding strategies.

The proposed conceptual model enables marketers to cope even with the most negative “made-in” country stereotypes and improve their marketplace positions.

The literature review demonstrates that researchers have not dealt with these two dimensions. Consequently, the paper offers marketers a new perspective on the complex issue of country positioning and how to leverage their strengths to maximize their company’s profits.

As a result of accelerating globalisation, competitive dynamics of the world are rapidly changing. Nowadays, both small and large enterprises exist in the same arena, which was not possible before. Similarly, emerging countries have become both markets and competitors for developed countries.

In this chapter, competitive dynamics of Turkey, as an emerging market, will be analysed by evaluating export, import and production volume of the main sectors in Turkey. The concept of competitive positioning and also competitive positioning in emerging markets will be explained. Cases from different industries will be included in order to comprehend the big picture, to understand the competitive dynamics in Turkey and to show the roadmap in management and marketing of these companies. This chapter is planned to be a helpful tool to guide entrepreneurs and managers working in and with Turkish companies to survive and market their products in the Turkish market.