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The chapter provides an economic explanation and perspectivation of strategic asset seeking of multinational enterprises from emerging economies (EMNEs) as a prominent feature of today’s global economy.

The authors apply and extend the “springboard perspective.” This perspective submits that EMNEs acquire strategic assets in developed markets primarily for use in their home markets.

The authors succumb that the springboard perspective is alluring theoretically as well as empirically as it suggests that when EMNEs acquire strategic assets, they experience liabilities of foreignness (LOF) that are low relative to those of MNEs from developed markets. The authors concede to this LOF asymmetry but also point out that liabilities of outsidership (LOO) can offset or weaken the home-market advantage of some EMNEs when competing with MNEs.

LOO appears as the more relevant concept to use when explaining strategic asset seeking of EMNEs. A set of propositions are formulated to guide empirical testing.

The insights gained from using the springboard perspective and the LOO concept are non-trivial: They basically predict future dominance of ‘insider’ EMNEs at the expense of MNEs from developed markets.

In developed markets, emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) seem to be more discriminated by host country nationals than foreign developed market multinational enterprises (DMNEs). They are challenged with host country nationals’ prejudices and face a stigma of being from emerging markets. While literature agrees that EMNEs suffer from additional disadvantages due to their country-of-origin, research fails to identify those factors that may lead to a higher discrimination against EMNEs than against foreign DMNEs.

Based on institutional theory, we look at institutional-related and resource-related antecedents that have an impact on various forms of direct and indirect discrimination by host country nationals.

Our framework analyzes the crucial differences between host country nationals’ perception of EMNEs and foreign DMNEs and the resulting challenges for EMNEs in the developed world. It enhances our understanding of the importance of institutional environments in explaining differences in host country nationals’ discrimination against foreign MNEs.

The extant literature on emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) suggest that they derive their advantages from factors such as economies of scale, and that they internationalise, in large measure, to access technology. However, support for this framework typically comes from analysis of static data, comparing EMNEs and OECD MNEs at a point in time. Little attention is paid to their development paths in a dynamic setting. We examine these propositions directly using an approach that enables us to decompose productivity growth of firms into its components, namely, changes in scale economies, technological progress and technical efficiency. We compare Chinese MNEs with their non-MNE domestic counterparts and developed country MNEs that have operations in China. We demonstrate that Chinese MNEs continue to derive much of their productivity growth from changes in scale economies, while developed country MNEs continue to have an advantage with respect to technical progress. Both these types of MNEs have a significant advantage over Chinese non-MNE domestic firms.

The purpose of this paper explains how the framework on motives of foreign direct investment (FDI) needs to be rethought when analyzing emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). It argues that the weak position of emerging market firms and their interdependent relationship with lead firms in global value chains (GVCs) modify the selection of internationalization motives.

The arguments are illustrated through a critical review of the literature on FDI motives and a discussion on how the literature can be extended from looking through the lens of emerging market multinationals, particularly those with early development as suppliers in global value chains.

The weak position of emerging market firms and their interdependent relationship with lead firms in global value chains modify the selection of internationalization motives on two aspects. First, internationalization decisions of EMNEs in GVCs are not undertaken in an independent manner. Rather, decisions are influenced by the initial position along the value chain and the dynamic relationships that these EMNEs have with lead firms. Second, the selection of FDI motives of these EMNEs reflects both their international expansion strategy and the upgrading effort they wish to pursue to undertake higher value-adding activities along the GVCs.

These implications addressed in this paper add more nuances to the interpretation of FDI motives. Previously viewed mainly from the perspective of lead firms, FDI decisions are considered as independent alternatives that multinational enterprises (MNEs) can undertake to fulfill their internationalization strategy. Revisiting the FDI motives from the perspective of EMNEs reveals further insights on the interdependent nature of their internationalization, particularly reflecting the weaker position of EMNEs and their interdependent relationship with lead firms in their industry.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine how multinational firms have an added incentive to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) in order to maximize profitability and adapt to the changing normative climate in a post Great Recession economy.

This chapter builds on institutional theory using contextual evidence from Mexican firms to provide insight into the varying pressures facing local and multinational enterprises in emerging markets.

This chapter highlights different sets of pressures faced by emerging market firms, both domestic and multinational. This chapter contends that emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) are incentivized to uphold CSR practices to a greater degree than domestic firms from emerging markets.

Contextual evidence for this chapter was confined to Mexican firms, which provides an opportunity for future research to be carried out from alternative emerging markets.

From a social standpoint, this chapter sheds light on the challenges of globalization and the current rift between national level policies, coinciding behavior, and global expectations. From a practical standpoint, this chapter could inform and alert CEOs and practitioners to the nuances of CSR expectations, contingent upon the sphere in which they choose to operate in.

This chapter contributes to the growing dialogue on EMNEs while highlighting the schism between national and global expectations for CSR. Further, this chapter adds to the literature on institutional theory by connecting it to the in-group and out-group literature from sociology.

As FDI flows grew in volume and complexity in the 1990s and early 2000s, three new players appeared on the global stage: sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), which were government-controlled entities with the authority to take significant equity stakes in foreign firms; private equity (PE) firms, which resorted increasingly to cross-border acquisitions, and emerging-market multinational enterprises (EMNEs), which ratcheted up their overseas acquisitions and investments. While none of these players was entirely new, each became more visible in the 2000s. Looking ahead, we anticipate that SWFs will continue to be marginal FDI players, with a few exceptions, despite their high visibility; that PEs will play a highly volatile role, varying from marginal at times to important at others; and that only EMNEs were already quite important in 2009 and likely to gain in importance, as emerging economies become prime movers of the global economy. The global financial crisis of 2008–2009 may thus only have speeded up the inevitable rise of emerging economies as both sources and destinations for FDI. We further conclude that EMNEs will contribute significantly to sustainable development because of their distinctive capabilities in making and selling products for low-income customers, and their emerging competence in “green” technologies.

A significant stream of literature focuses on host countries’ locations when explaining why firms internalize some of their activities in specific countries. At first glance, home location schemes and specificities seem to have attracted less attention in the scientific community. The purpose of this contribution is to provide a literature review linked to the specific issue of emerging countries’ country-specific advantages and the competitiveness of emerging market multinational enterprises.

The approach is to present the main theoretical developments related to the role of home countries in the internationalization process of domestic firms in general and as far as the home context of emerging countries is concerned.

A rigorous analysis of the literature shows that theoretical developments and empirical studies on international business do refer explicitly or at least implicitly to the role of home countries in the international expansion of firms.

The value of this review is to develop the main streams of the literature and to serve as a basis for the other contributions published in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of integrating sustainability into the corporate strategy of an emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNE) to achieve and maintain corporate legitimacy over time. The research explores how deploying a corporate sustainability strategy enhances the company’s long-term competitive relevance by creating and maintaining corporate legitimacy and transferring practices based on sustainable development goals within the organization.

The study adopts a qualitative single-case design, focusing on a corporate energy services company (Interconexión Eléctrica S.A.) operating in volatile, uncertain and turbulent environments.

The findings indicate that integrating sustainability into the corporate strategy enables subsidiaries to effectively meet global requirements, considering internal and external pressures. This integration also fosters the development of unique capabilities and the internalization of standards, addressing liabilities in foreign markets, thus providing a competitive advantage and safeguarding corporate legitimacy among stakeholders.

This research contributes to the international business literature by providing insights into strategy development and implementation in EMNEs. Specifically, it demonstrates how a Latin American emerging multinational enterprise (multilatina) adopts new sustainability strategies to enhance its business competitiveness. The study also offers guidance for emerging market companies on developing sustainability strategies and transferring them to subsidiaries operating in complex institutional environments. Furthermore, the research provides a rationale for governments and civil society organizations on why firms are committed to sustainability, highlighting its positive impact on firm’s competitiveness and survival in international markets.

Emerging market multinationals often face a variety of legitimacy challenges as they engage in cross-border acquisitions in developed countries, which requires an assortment of legitimacy strategies best aligned with the legitimacy challenges they face. This study advocates for a configurational perspective that examines how different configurations of legitimacy challenges, organizational characteristics, and legitimacy strategies influence the likelihood of deal completion in cross-border acquisitions by emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs).

Based on 328 cross-border acquisition cases by Chinese firms, this study adopts the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to examine the combined effects of institutional distance, political affinity, equity sought, architecture design, sensitive·industry and state-owned and enterprise (SOE) on cross-border acquisition completion.

This study identifies six pathways with different configurations for deal completion, suggesting that a deal's overall legitimacy falls at the intersection of the country-level institution and the firm-level characters and strategy evaluations.

This study investigates how nested legitimacy influences cross-border acquisition completion by offering a holistic and configurational understanding of the deal completion of cross-border acquisitions by EMNEs and yields useful insights for future research on cross-border acquisition completion and legitimacy.

Emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) have consolidated their global presence recently, challenging existing international business (IB) theories. One of their most significant characteristics has been the prevalence of strategic asset-seeking (SAS) mergers and acquisitions (M&As) targeting firms in developed countries. Such SAS M&As have been ascribed to the aim of acquiring or augmenting firm-specific advantages, rather than exploiting existing advantages. A literature review is needed to synthesize the growing number of academic studies and to contribute to ongoing theoretical developments on EMNEs' catch-up strategies.

The authors follow a standard systematic literature review approach. The authors collate academic studies on EMNEs' SAS M&As in developed markets published between 2000 and mid-2020, structuring the analysis using the logic of antecedent, process and performance outcomes.

The authors present recent research trends in terms of year, journal, theories and methods. The authors synthesize and analyze existing knowledge on EMNEs' SAS M&As and identify remaining gaps to suggest future research directions.

The review contributes by focusing on the key argument of current EMNE research – SAS M&As. By providing the first focused review on this topic, it provides a basis for further research on EMNEs' SAS M&As.