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The purpose of this paper is to examine the theories used to study the international equity-based entry mode strategies of emerging market multinationals (EMMs) and the contribution of these studies to extant literature.

The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature. A total of 73 articles were identified from key management, international business and international marketing journals published between 2000 and June 2015. Articles were analysed according to the theory(ies) used, thematic area, methodology, home/host countries studied and findings.

Despite the great interest around the topic of how the antecedents and outcomes of EMMs’ international entry mode strategies may challenge and amend existing theories, the findings that come out of this research mirror patterns observed in the entry mode literature in general. Whilst traditional perspectives such as internalisation theory and the OLI paradigm remain prevalent, a growing number of studies draw on institutional theory and combine multiple theoretical perspectives. Newer theories developed specifically to study EMMs (e.g., the springboard perspective) are used in only five studies and challenged to differentiate their theoretical underpinnings from extant literature. Overall, the theoretical contribution of EMM studies is simply a change in emphasis from the role of firm-specific factors towards the influence of home country institutions on entry mode strategies. The authors conclude that the literature has only made tweaks at the edge of theories with no significant changes to extant theorisations.

This is the first systematic review of the literature focusing specifically on the international equity-based entry mode strategies of EMMs.

Given the growing external value chain disruptions, there have been many studies seeking to propose methods for improving the resilience of global value chains (GVCs). This study complements previous studies by proposing the perspective of firm strategy in switching governance modes to improve the resilience of GVCs. Specifically, this study explores under what conditions MNCs are more likely to switch governance toward non-equity mode (NEM) from the alternative ones. This study introduces three industry-specific factors that affect MNCs’ decision for NEM. It then applies this framework to explain how Korean MNCs’ strategic governance change for the co-productions with Chinese firms when entering their film market which is highly restricted by the Chinese government. This study enriches the research on GVC resilience by arguing that MNCs can avoid unfavorable environmental impacts by flexibly changing their GVC governance modes under certain conditions. This study also contributes to the understanding on why some countries maintain their high attractiveness for foreign MNCs, whereas other countries do not, given the similar level of restrictive government regulations. The protectionist policies of the host government are valid only in an industry where the three conditions are met, as they increase the possibility of domestic firms’ participation by encouraging foreign MNCs to shift their entry mode from sole venture toward alliances with domestic firms.

Most of the research studies on entry mode have been done through the lens of manufacturing firms from mature economic countries entering the Global South countries, and most of the related frameworks and theories have been developed to explain this perspective. This paper presents an understanding of entry mode strategies of services firms from the Global South countries entering into countries with mature economies by considering six software services firms in India entering the US market. The study develops a framework that incorporates multiple theories – both from an emerging economy perspective as well as a services perspective.

This study is exploratory in nature and focuses on the how and why aspects of strategic decisions. Qualitative research has traditionally been chosen when the main research objective is to improve understanding of a phenomenon. A multiple case study approach was used in this research. One of the key aspects of this study is the impact of different theories (institutional, network and other theories) on enterprises of different sizes. Therefore six cases – two each on small, medium and large enterprises – were selected.

Results identify addressable market size, cultural aspects, firm size, resource and service characteristics as dominating factors that influenced choice of entry modes. From a theoretical perspective, the author finds that theories such as transaction cost theory, eclectic paradigm and other popular theories associated with entry mode do not successfully explain the entry mode strategies for firms from the Global South. Strategic theory, such as resource-based view, motivation of a firm, have some application but do not explain, in isolation, all aspects of the entry mode choices.

The study is an exploratory study and needs more data to validate the themes expressed in its conclusions. The study also focused on one industry and one country. Different industries within the same country may have different characteristics and may not follow the observations found in this study. Similarly, firms from other countries with similar economic characteristics may exhibit very different behavior. As a result, the themes that were expressed for software companies in India may not be generalizable across other industries and countries.

This study is significant for both academics and managers. For academics, the study addresses a significant gap in the literature. For managers, this study provides a framework for managers to evaluate and select the entry mode strategy that would be most effective in a successful expansion into foreign countries.

This paper delves into the mechanism of the contingency framework for foreign entry mode decisions and identifies two essential tasks that jointly determine the outcome of the entry mode decision. It then recognizes a critical weakness in previous research pertaining to the comparison of entry modes along a key decision criterion, the degree of control. Existing studies generally treat equity involvement as the only source of entrant control, while largely ignoring non‐equity sources of control (i.e., bargaining power and trust). Non‐equity sources of control, when underutilized, amount to missed opportunities, increased resource commitments, and heightened risk exposures in foreign markets. Drawing from a pluralism perspective in transaction and relationship governance, the author presents a more integrative method for the ranking of entry modes along the degree of control. The central message is that companies entering foreign markets should make an earnest effort to identify trust and bargaining power situations and fully utilize their control potential in making entry mode decisions.

The aim of this study is to examine the entry mode that retail firms correctly choose when culture is simultaneously considered has a positive effect on firm performance.

This study relies on the two-step analysis originally derived from Heckman and applied into multinational enterprises (MNEs) entry mode by Shaver. To figure out the probability of entry mode in the first step, the paper uses the logit regression that independent variable is four culture dimensions and dependent variable is the entry mode (joint venture vs wholly owned subsidiary). Since the selection bias is relatively reduced by adding lambda calculated in the first step to the second step that verifies the degree of fit, the safety for interpretation of subsequent models is secured.

This study collected 96 entries of top global retail firms and found out the relationship between culturally determined entry mode and firm performance is positively significant. While existing literatures dealing with manufacturing firms' international entries showed that wholly owned subsidiary is favored over joint venture when the cultural distance is high, this study focusing on retail firms in the service sector indicates that those firms are more likely to enter the global market with joint venture. Finally, firms that appropriately understand cultural distance demonstrated higher performance in the target country.

This study focuses on the relationship between culturally determined entry mode and firm performance in the service sector, whereas extant literatures heavily depend on the one in the manufacturing sector. Moreover, the two-step analysis is exquisitely adopted to confirm the hypotheses.

A critical aspect in venture capital (VC) exiting is the choice of exit mode. This study aims to predict if venture capitalists (VCs) can take the venture capital undertaking public by identifying the impact of investment attributes, market timing and macroeconomic conditions on the choice of mode of exit for VCs.

The study uses logistic regression on a sample of 632 Indian VC-backed firms where VCs exited during the past two decades via initial public offers (IPOs) and other routes, including strategic sale, secondary sale and buyback.

Results suggest that growth stage investments, larger syndication size and a larger number of IPOs increase the probability of exiting through IPOs, whereas investments in the information technology and information technology-enabled services industry have a higher likelihood of being exited through other routes. Region and gross domestic product are found to be statistically insignificant in predicting the likelihood for a particular mode of exit.

The results have practical implications for VCs as knowledge regarding the influence of investment attributes, market timing and macroeconomic conditions can help them in deciding their exit strategy vis-à-vis mode of exit and can maximize their potential gains. The results also have implications for the potential investors, primarily the public at large and acquirers.

The determinants of VC exit options remain an unexplored area in the Indian context. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is the first of its kind that has used investment attributes, market timing and macroeconomic conditions to predict VC exit options in India.

Establishment of wholly owned subsidiaries in a foreign market is central to international marketing because sole ownership and high commitment facilitate firm's marketing in the local market. Drawing on knowledge-based theory, this study extends the current understanding of firm's sequential establishments of wholly owned subsidiaries in a host country.

Swedish firms' establishments of wholly owned subsidiaries in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States were analyzed using a longitudinal approach.

A firm's broad international experience is associated with an acquisition in any phase, while mode experience and value-adding experience are associated with postinitial acquisitions. There is no association between mode experience and greenfield investments.

Knowledge-based theory explains a firm's choice of establishment mode when establishing in the same host country. Effects of marketing experiences are due to the establishment mode and different experiences explain choices for initial and postinitial establishments.

In choosing between a wholly owned subsidiary in terms of an acquisition or a greenfield investment, for a foreign establishment the firm is advised to consider the impact of marketing experiences and establishment phase.

Research is needed on how experiences affect choices between foreign establishment modes where the firm is the sole owner. This study is the first to focus on the choice between wholly owned subsidiaries in terms of acquisitions and greenfield investments, and the impact of experience and phase of establishment in a particular host country.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of cultural distance, governance quality, and market attractiveness on attachment of agents with a university.

A single university was chosen as a case study and secondary data were collected. The focus of this paper is on education agents who market higher education institution (HEI) in international market and recruit international students.

Multiple regression was performed and the finding indicated that governance quality and market attractiveness are significantly related with a number of agents attached to the marketing department of the university. However, cultural distance showed no significant relationship with agent attachment.

The availability of data was most challenging in gathering data for this study because the culture of a country may change across time and the sample was based on only one case study, a minimal amount of information was obtained.

This study addresses the external factors that needed to be considered in selecting new agents.

This study contributes to the international marketing literature by a focus on HEI and focus on agency approach.

Although research on family firms (FF) internationalization has seen a boom over the past 30 years, the understanding of how FFs internationalize with equity modes is still fragmented. Indeed, the majority of extant literature on this topic identifies internationalization with export, overlooking the alternative equity-based entry modes FFs have when entering a foreign country. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap with a framework-based systematic literature review on the topic to improve the understanding of this phenomenon and propose a way forward.

This study conducted a framework-based systematic literature review of 93 papers published between 1993 and 2021.

This study adds to the current debate on FFs internationalization by integrating previous review efforts with a deeper investigation of FFs’ equity-based entry modes. This study contributes to this body of knowledge in the family business research by synthetizing and systematizing extant literature with a framework-based approach from the international business (IB) field. In so doing, this study builds a stronger link between these two areas of research. Finally, research gaps and promising research avenues for future studies are also presented.

This study responds to the call to create a dialogue between the FFs and IB fields by systematizing the extant body of knowledge and integrating the FF literature with one of the most widely used frameworks (Pan and Tse, 2000) on entry modes in the IB domain.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically assess the empirical support for central relationships in the empirical literature on foreign market entry mode. The reviewing method overcomes methodological limitations in past reviews.

This review provides a systematic assessment of empirical support through a simple quantitative procedure using transparent criteria for article selection. In total, 1,217 statistical tests from 119 studies published in 44 different scientific journals in the period 1997-2013 are examined across a range of dimensions.

Findings question the frequent use of commonly used measures (e.g. advertising intensity) and control variables (e.g. firm size) and suggest that statements about the importance of mode choice for subsidiary performance may be premature. Methodologically, this study identifies critical issues with regard to interpretation of interactions and the entry mode choice set.

This study limits itself to study the direction of relationships and does not analyze effect sizes. Further, future research may benefit from broadening the entry mode choice by extending the use of multiple outcome models as well as implementing the correct interpretational tools when investigating interactions.

The review is relevant to researchers seeking an overview over the research literature or practitioners interested in the link between mode choice and subsidiary performance.