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How does emerging market multinational enterprises’ (EM MNEs) resource vulnerability to domestic institutional weakness influence the escapist outward foreign direct investment (OFDI)? This study aims to focus on how varying qualities of technological resources make EM MNEs vulnerable to institutional weakness at home and when such a vulnerability triggers escapist OFDI.

A mix of primary and secondary data is used to study evidence of escapist OFDI in the case of multilatinas. Structural equation modelling and hierarchical regressions were applied to test the hypotheses.

Domestic institutional weakness triggers escapist OFDI only when EM MNEs’ resources are vulnerable to institutional pressures. Technological leadership increases the vulnerability of EM MNEs to the pressure of institutional weaknesses at home, which, in turn, motivates escapist OFDI.

In discussing the role of firm resources and their vulnerability to institutional weakness, a mechanism is proposed to shed light on how EM MNEs transform the general country framework of the institutional environment into the specific decision to escape via OFDI.

This paper builds a theoretical argument of how the Internet increases the scope for disintermediation and analyzes the changes in the structure of transaction costs in the case of retailing. The paper treats the Internet as a low‐cost selling technology that needs substantial customers acceptance and a specific business model in order to be a viable alternative to traditional retailing. The proposed model predicts that different types of traditional retailers follow different strategies with respect to e‐commerce depending on their pre‐Internet market positioning. These conclusions are supported by empirical evidence from the adoption strategies, followed by a sample of well‐established U.S.‐based retailers. This study shows that retailers whose traditional selling technology is best approximated by e‐commerce are more likely to be among the first to reap the benefits of low‐cost online distribution.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the market potential for internet services interacted historically with the diffusion process of fixed line and mobile telephony.

The authors evaluate the historical interactions between internet, fixed line and mobile telephony using the International Telecommunications Union data set from 1991 until 2003 for 214 countries.

It was found that between 1991 and 2003 mobile and internet services were fully complementary; fixed line facilitated the diffusion of internet service, but internet diffusion did not affect fixed line telephony. The authors discuss the implications of these results in the light of current developments of the telecommunications industry.

Internet adoption should be analysed in close relation to the adoption of other telecommunication services, such as fixed line and mobile telephony.

The paper shows the interconnectivity of the internet with other telecommunication services and emphasizes the asymmetric nature of these interactions. Telecommunication services interactions are discussed in the light of recent industry developments.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect that weak enforceability of property rights has on the human resource practices of firms operating in hostile business environment.

This paper questions the role of the state as the only provider of stability and guarantor of property rights and hypothesizes that it is not governments, which tend to be weak in weak institutional settings, but private firms that act as the main force behind the protection of entrepreneurial investments. The approach consists in developing a case study about a farm (Hacienda Gavilanes) in rural Colombia.

It is found that incentives together with inclusive human resources practices and empowerment are among those strategic arrangements that contribute most to the survival and sustainability of the farm today in a setting where legal enforceability is precarious. The replication of this policy might not be easy, however, because it requires a profound shift in the way landowners perceive workers in rural Colombia and many other parts of the world.

The case presented in this paper provides valuable lessons beyond Latin America for other developing countries with similarly fragile governments and economic environments.

The purpose of this paper is to systematize the strategic capabilities of seven surviving industrial Catalan companies which were going through explosive growth in 1999.

We use the comparative case studies method to draw on the common features among the seven in‐debt cases we built. We are well aware that the method of comparative case studies does not provide a sufficient base for bold generalizations. However, the qualitative approach adopted here allows for the first in‐depth look at the strategies that bring surviving entrepreneurs from explosive growth to a more balanced growth path.

We identify four organizational capabilities as key to the survival of these businesses ten years later: first, ability to prioritize product and market development, including internationalization, over operations; second, ability to reorganize internally and delegate in a timely manner; third, ability to manage innovation and support creativity linked to productivity; and finally, ability to manage economic and financial resources.

Implications for the culturally proximate and less‐studied Latin‐American gazelles are presented.

El propósito de este artículo es sistematizar las capacidades estratégicas de siete empresas catalanas sobrevivientes y consideradas gacelas en 1999.

Se usa el método de estudio de casos comparativos para identificar las características de interés investigativo. Se es consciente de que el método de estudio de casos empleado, no proporciona una base suficiente para hacer generalizaciones de los hallazgos. No obstante, el enfoque cualitativo adoptado proporciona una primera mirada en profundidad de las estrategias que permitieron a los empresarios que sobrevivieron al crecimiento explosivo, seguir una senda de crecimiento más equilibrada.

Se identificaron cuatro capacidades organizacionales consideradas clave para la supervivencia de la empresa diez años después del crecimiento explosivo: 1) capacidad para priorizar dentro de sus operaciones el desarrollo de productos y mercados, incluyendo la internacionalización, 2) capacidad de reorganizar internamente y delegar de manera oportuna, 3) capacidad de gestión de la innovación y apoyar la creatividad ligada a la productividad y 4) capacidad de gestionar los recursos económicos y financieros.

Se presentan implicaciones para las gacelas localizadas en países latinoamericanos, las cuales son culturalmente próximas y escasamente estudiadas.

The paper examines the effect that weak enforcement of property rights has on the HR practices of firms operating in a hostile business environment.

Through a case study of a workers' co‐operative named Cofudeco, supplying a farm named Hacienda Gavilanes, the paper shows that co‐operative members see the farm's business as their opportunity to provide a better living for their families.

The paper reveals that the farm today enjoys enviable security conditions guarded by the loyalty of the co‐operative members. The farm owner no longer pays daily wages to the workers but negotiates on compensation for the completion of certain tasks.

The paper contends that, if adopted on a larger scale, such human‐resource practices could transform the business environment in hostile zones in Colombia and even help to improve the country's investment climate.

The paper describes how the system creates incentives for time‐saving innovations, and workers have come up with several proposals for improving the processes. Workers have considerable freedom to take decisions.

Current gazelle and high growth firm (HGF) research provides relatively little systematic knowledge if, how, why firm internationalization facilitates accelerated growth. This chapter aims at providing such an insight by addressing the following three questions: (1) What is the evidence of internationalization as an determinant of HGF; (2) How does internationalization facilitates fast growth?; (3) What do we know about the circumstance under which internationalization contributes to HGF? The chapter concludes that while there is clear evidence that internationalization and its different modes can be important determinants of accelerated firm growth, our knowledge remains limited on how different circumstances of the firm at the micro-, meso- and macro-level interact to condition growth opportunities through internationalization.