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Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to examine methodological trends in emerging market strategy research and to provide a comprehensive review of methods of assessing group variation in comparative studies.

Methodology/approach – This comprises a systematic review of the methodology of emerging market research over the past 10 years, followed by methodological best practices for comparative studies involving emerging and mature markets, with exemplars from the past research.

Findings – Despite previous calls for more comparative studies in emerging market research, most of the literature is reporting on single-country studies. There is some confusion in terminology and the methods used in this area of strategy research. Increased attention to the “East” calls for a reevaluation of methods utilized in comparative studies. The methods described in this chapter present best practices for comparative research.

Social implications – More comparative studies would substantially expand our understanding of the differences between the emerging and developed markets, and the potential impact of emerging markets on global economy. Rigorous research methods extend validity and generalizability of the studies.

Originality/value – This chapter is the first study to date to analyze the methodological trends of the entire field of emerging market research over the span of 10 years and to provide systematic methodological recommendations tailored to analyzing variation in comparative studies.

The UN Global Compact promotes values of precautionary approach to environmental changes and business sustainability, which are eagerly embraced by MNCs; however the recognized emerging country risks pose a challenge for continuous commitment to those principles in the subsidiaries. Especially political and currency risks are considered significant in the subsidiaries located in the emerging markets. Therefore, those risks are often shifted to the local partners as the pursued core principle of the risk management strategies. The objective of MNCs is in fact to limit MNCs responsibility for the liabilities and losses in the emerging markets in case of market downturns, and in effect the advocated risk management practices exacerbate the severity of the emerging market crises.

The chapter explores those corporate practices on the examples of numerous major international market players in case of several historical, but recent examples of the emerging market currency crises.

The concerns addressed in the chapter include: the preference for local financing exposing at risk local banking sectors in the emerging markets, excessive liquidity and minimal capital commitments and investments leading to weaker currency fluctuations and resulting in private capital speculations and capital flight (to safety or to quality). The intensified global competition for international investments in form of FDIs resulted in the erosion of the capital requirements, reduced social and business infrastructure commitments requested, limited currency controls, and other components of the regulatory framework easing in the emerging markets. Other identified in the research key components of the risk management strategies applied by MNCs, destabilizing the emerging markets in financial (both fiscal and currency) crises include: intercompany payments and financing such as: transfer pricing, local sourcing and reimbursements for both tangible and intangible assets transfer.

Demonstrated approach of MNCs appears ethically questionable and reflects the disparity of the bargaining powers. It also undermines the intentions of the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact. The corporate citizenship is found difficult to dominate over the conflicting self-centered interests of MNCs operating in the emerging markets, especially in times of crises. The consideration of the non-compulsory ethically based initiative, as the alternative to the failing effectiveness of the international market regulations, requires restoration of the public and an individual value of the reputation (image, name) built on social responsibility and accountability, unfortunately so much diluted over the last two decades.

The chapter examines the effect of MNCs risk management of their foreign operations on the crises in the emerging markets with focus on inward FDIs flows and inward FDIs stock fluctuations and debt financing. The results evidence the repetitive nature of the self-interest driven corporate behavior.

This book chapter focuses on firstly social innovation and tools used to address the social needs and foster social innovation initiatives. Looking at the world economic forum and how it supports the social innovations, currency swings, low paying jobs growing rapidly, rapid change and growth as a result of high volatility and high returns, respectively. Secondly looking at the emerging market brought about by the social innovations and how they interconnect. Leading innovation emerging market has three main industries semiconductors, fin-tech, and electric cars. It also looks at the significance of technology in the development of business emerging markets, the role of technology in the emerging market and activities over the decades. Small firms in emerging areas face three major challenges which technology might help overcome. The challenges are trust, sustainability, and network. The role of technology replacing analog chip used for power supply, sensors, wideband signal make up the large semiconductors in the United States replaced with digital chip such as logical operations, data storage, computer information management all this have given birth to artificial intelligence, autonomous machines, self-driving cars, supply-chain management, cloud computing, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications are all made possible by digital chips. These are also used for e-commerce, mobile payment, fine-tech, 5G telecom, health-care advancement, remote learning, online entertainment, and cloud computing. Technical advancements that has sparked a revolution that would be especially advantageous for emerging market and small-cap enterprises are the causes of these benefits of how it has affected countries such as Europe, the United States, China, and India to mention a few.

This study examines the role of social media adoption (SMA), opportunity recognition (OR) and opportunity exploitation (OE) in mediating the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and the performance of newly established small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies, with a particular emphasis on Ghana.

This study adopts a post-positivist philosophical stance and uses a quantitative approach and a survey design. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 336 SME owners and managers from Ghana’s manufacturing, trading and service sectors. Questionnaires were administered to source the empirical data for this study. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the proposed hypotheses.

The results reveal that EO positively and significantly influences the performance of new-born SMEs. SMA, OR and OE partially mediated this relationship.

This study is a wakeup call to policymakers, practitioners, managers and owners of recently established businesses. Policymakers should provide support and resources for newly established SMEs to adopt effective social media marketing strategies, bolstering their online presence and customer engagement. Simultaneously, they should invest in entrepreneurship education and create an environment conducive to innovation to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset among fresh SMEs. Business owners and managers should proactively monitor market trends and consumer preferences, adapting their strategies to identifying and seizing emerging opportunities.

This study introduces a significant novelty to previous literature and one of the first to employ the dynamic capability theory to examine the interplay between EO, SMA, OR and OE in influencing the performance of new SMEs in the context of emerging markets. Furthermore, it extends the scope of understanding of the mechanisms through which SMEs can prosper in these dynamic environments. This unique combination of theoretical framework, comprehensive variables and contextual focus sets this study apart from existing research, enriching the literature on SME performance in emerging markets.

This chapter identifies three crisis warning indicators driven from trading in emerging markets’ carry trades, and empirically examines whether these indicators could predict two major financial crises that hit the global financial markets in the last decades — The 1997–1998 Asian crisis and the 2007–2008 global crisis. The probit regression is used to examine the power of the three indicators in forecasting financial crises, using data from eight Asian emerging countries which serve as proxies for emerging markets, independent of the origination of the crisis. I use both fixed effect and random effect estimation to measure crisis impacts. The empirical results show that financial crises could have been predicted. Probit estimation show that carry trade returns can predict a financial crisis, and the estimation results are robust to both panel level and country-level analysis. These three indicators are by no means an exhaustive list of all possible predictors of financial crisis. The literature suggests other fundamental indicators of financial crises such as the current account deficit and foreign debt. However, this chapter cannot fully consider these indicators for lack of data at this point in time. Although financial crisis may be better predicted by the well-known fundamental indicators, the contribution of this chapter is simply that carry trade-related indicators can help in predicting crises.

This study proposes a portfolio of new venture signals that are likely to attract investors' attention in the context of an emerging market and examines how they work in combination to affect the likelihood of obtaining funding.

The authors use data on early-stage venture capital investments for high-tech start-ups in Turkey. The authors adopt a configurational approach and use fuzzy QCA and regression analysis.

The findings suggest that financing of new ventures in an emerging economy is shaped by signals of context-specific capabilities that are required to survive and thrive in this market environment alongside and in interaction with signals of general capabilities required for business success. Different combinations of these signals provide equifinal pathways to obtain funding. Furthermore, signals that differ in type and content interact in complex ways to affect investors' decisions.

The findings suggest that entrepreneurs with no prior experience in the emerging market context can increase their chances of obtaining funding by affiliating with a venture development organization. Another promising strategy is to form a founding team that includes members affiliated with a developed country together with members who have emerging market experience. Finally, entrepreneurs may consider combining signals of context-specific capabilities with signals of general capabilities as they work in a complementary way to attract funding.

This study addresses two major shortcomings of the literature on new venture signaling, first, by positing the emerging market context as a unique signaling environment and, second, by demonstrating the value of considering signals as portfolios with potential interdependencies.

This study aims to examine the multidimensional nature of institutional distance as a driver of acquisition decisions in emerging markets. Then, this study aims to offer a nuanced perspective on the role of its various formal and informal dimensions by taking into account the potential contingency role played by a firm’s context experience.

Building on institutional economics and organizational institutionalism, this study explores the heterogeneity of institutional distance and its effects on the decision to enter emerging versus advanced markets through cross-border acquisitions. Thus, institutional distance is disentangled into its formal and informal dimensions, the former being captured by regulatory efficiency, country governance and financial development. Furthermore, our framework examines the moderating effect of an acquiring firm’s experience in institutionally similar environments, defined as context experience. The hypotheses are analyzed on a sample of 496 cross-border acquisitions by Italian companies in 41 countries from 2008 to 2018.

Findings indicate that at an increasing distance in terms of regulatory efficiency and financial development, acquiring firms are less likely to enter emerging markets, while informal institutional distance is positively associated with such acquisitions. Context experience mitigates the negative effect of formal distance and enhances the positive effect of informal distance.

This study contributes to institutional distance literature in multiple ways. First, by bridging institutional economics and organizational institutionalism and second, by examining the heterogeneity of formal and informal dimensions of distance, this study offers a finer-grained perspective on how institutional distance affects acquisition decisions. Finally, it offers a contingency perspective on the role of context experience.

Strategic contingency theory maintains that a successful strategy should fit the features of the environment in which it is implemented, suggesting that different strategies are required in different world markets. In contrast, Porter posited three generic strategies, and asserted that to be effective firms should consistently use only one of the three. This paper aims to address this apparent disagreement by discussing the transfer, by developed‐country multinational companies (MNCs), of a cost‐leadership strategy to emerging markets.

Presenting theoretical arguments, based on deductive reasoning and examples reported in business publications, the authors focus on why firms from developed countries may find a cost‐leadership strategy ineffective in emerging markets. This focus on both emerging markets as a group and on the ease of the transfer of the cost‐leadership strategy fills a gap in the international management literature.

It is argued that implementation of a cost‐leadership strategy by developed‐country MNCs is rarely effective in emerging markets, and that MNCs may benefit from using different strategies in different markets.

The paper provides at least a partial explanation as to why developed‐country firms may struggle when they apply a generic competitive strategy across countries. The contribution of this paper is two‐fold. First, it explores the question of emerging market strategies by focusing on developed‐country MNCs that use a cost‐leadership strategy in these markets. Second, the paper contributes an important critique of the claims made by some business strategy theorists that MNCs need to use a single generic strategy globally in order to achieve high performance.

Upon entering developed markets, emerging market multinational corporations (EMNCs) from China and India must compete with both host companies and other developed nation MNCs to attract and recruit necessary local talent. The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent EMNC firms will be perceived as less attractive employers than their developed nation counterparts due to a perceived liability of origin bias. Major demographic and psychographic factors that may affect this bias will also be identified.

Seven hypotheses were tested on a total of 626 German, French and American respondents. Participants were randomly presented identical job descriptions from four hypothetical MNCs (American, European, Indian and Chinese) and were asked to evaluate the perceived attractiveness of working for, as well as their intent to pursue employment with, the offering firm.

Using hierarchical linear regression testing, combined with analysis of variance testing, EMNCs were found to have significantly lower organizational attractiveness than equivalent European or American owned MNCs. Mixed results were found for the various hypotheses based on the moderator variables.

Because the study included three distinct sub-groups, supplemental analyses controlling for possible variances between the sub-groups themselves are included. This multicultural study is one of the first to address the human perspective of EMNC outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by identifying the existence of a potential liability of origin bias toward emerging market firms manifested by potential developed market job applicants. Furthermore, this study is one of the first to examine the influence of applicant age, professional status, gender and nationality with respect to the differences in the perceived level of organizational attractiveness between emerging market and developed nation firms.

This paper extends the literature in three important research areas. First, an extension to the literature on the highly relevant topic of OFDI by Chinese and Indian firms is made. Second, traditional research in the field of organizational attractiveness is further extended by combining it with the timely subject of Chinese and Indian OFDI into developed markets. Finally, this study extends international business literature by studying the influence of demographic and psychographic moderators on the perceived level of organizational attractiveness between emerging market and developed nation firms.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework that addresses the question of how and why multinational corporations (MNCs) from developed economies engage in divergent patterns of institutional entrepreneurship (IE) in emerging markets.

The authors combine IB’s concept of institutional voids with comparative capitalism’s insights into the institutional embeddedness of firm capabilities and IE. This theoretical cross-fertilisation is instrumental in developing a refined understanding of institutional voids and how MNCs proactively engage with them.

The authors emphasise the notion of institutional voids as a relative concept and, thereby, move away from an ethnocentric view of emerging markets as “empty spaces” that are void of institutions. The authors’ framework proposes that MNCs from liberal and coordinated market economies experience institutional voids differently and engage in different patterns of IE.

The main limitation of this work is that the propositions are restricted to the country-of-origin effect and that the observations are based on anecdotal evidence only. Against these limitations the authors call for a more comprehensive research agenda in their conclusion.

The paper sensitises policymakers in emerging markets for the potentially different patterns of involvement of MNCs in their institutional environments. Specifically, the authors argue that MNCs may have a strong inclination to rebuild critical elements of their home country’s institutional setting in emerging markets. This touches upon questions of national sovereignty and highlights the need for emerging market policymakers to decide which kinds of institutional settings they would like or not like to see imported.

The paper provides a new and critical perspective of the mainstream IB concept of institutional voids. The authors’ key contribution is to highlight that the home country institutional context may substantially matter in how MNCs perceive and respond to institutional voids in emerging markets.