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Research on internationalization of emerging market firms (EMFs) has received an increasing attention in the international management field. A central argument in a majority of these studies is that the internationalization of EMFs is different from that of firms from developed economies, and existing internationalization theories are insufficient to fully explain this new phenomenon. We conduct a critical review of important studies on the internationalization of EMFs to address two related questions. First, is the internationalization of EMFs really a new phenomenon, never been witnessed in the past? Second, does it warrant new theoretical developments? Our review suggests that there are important variations in the internationalization strategies of EMFs and developed economy firms, within EMFs from different emerging economies, and during different time periods. A thorough understanding of motivations, paths, processes, and performances of EMFs does require new theoretical approaches that can take into account the unique aspects of EMFs.

Emerging Market Multinationals (EMNCs) are often seen as firms with singular identity. While they may share certain characteristics, EMNCs are seldom orchestrated and managed in the same manner. Through a cluster analysis of outward foreign direct investment data of EMNCs from India, we propose taxonomy of EMNCs based on their mode of operation, industry in which they operate, region where they invest and the amount invested. We use a dataset spread over 2007–2013, constituting investment data of 4,824 Indian firms into 7,238 foreign entities. Based on a two-step clustering approach, we propose three strategic archetypes of EMNCs: Global Service Providers, Integrated Manufacturers, and Established Internationalizers. The Global Service Providers mainly consists of firms operating in developed markets with an intention to serve their client needs through wholly owned subsidiaries. Integrated Manufacturers are firms that are primarily operating in other developing markets to sell their products through joint ventures and also present in developed markets through wholly owned subsidiaries – to acquire technology and other resources. The Established Internationalizers are large EMNCs with highest levels of investments, and relatively similar to the Western multinationals. We analyze the characteristics of these three groups of EMNCs based on their strategy and investment behavior, to derive insights into the heterogeneity across EMNCs. We discuss our findings and lay out future directions for research in the area.

Liability of foreignness (LOF) is a well-known concept in international business domain. At the core of LOF is the insight that firms face social and economic costs when they operate in foreign markets. Extant literature acknowledges that the ability of firms to overcome LOF in host locations varies; however, it does not discuss the possibility that the LOF itself could vary for different firms at the same location. We extend this literature by examining how a firm's interaction with the host and the home country environments affect the LOF that it faces in foreign markets.

We argue that there are two sources of LOF – environmentally derived LOF and firm-based LOF. The environmentally derived LOF has its source in home and host country environments. Firm-based LOF, on the contrary, derives from firm-specific characteristics including ownership structure, firm-specific resources, learning and network-based linkages such as affiliation to a business group. Furthermore, we argue that both the environmentally derived and the firm-based LOF are different for emerging market (EM) firms as compared to developed market (DM) firms. We develop testable propositions about how environment-specific and firm-specific factors affect LOF and suggest directions for future research.

Creating systems designs by considering a balance between economic, environmental, and social effects is significant in today's sustainability concern. Sustainability has become an emerging topic, growing concerns and attention for companies. Especially companies operating on a global scale aim to develop strategies for sustainable supply chain management. When the supply chain is a food chain, that concern increases exponentially and sustainable management of the chain becomes a critical challenge requiring the development and implementation of innovative practices by all stages within value chains. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a significant amount of food is wasted or lost in the journey from farm to fork. This waste affects the global economy, food availability, as well as the environment negatively. In this work, we, therefore, focus on addressing these aspects by searching how food waste or food loss could be reduced throughout a supply chain network. We provide solution ways for the food waste/loss reduction obtained from current works in literature.

We investigate the internationalization pattern and performance of Indian firms. We first discuss the regionalization trend evident in the internationalization of Indian manufacturing and service firms over time. Next, we empirically test the impact of degree of internationalization on firm financial performance of Indian firms. We also test the moderation effect of business group affiliation on the internationalization–performance relationship. We find that Indian outward foreign direct investment has been shifting from developing to developed economies over time. Also, firm performance of Indian firms is positively related to the degree of internationalization and that service firms profit more than manufacturing firms from internationalization. Business group affiliation reduces the positive effect of internationalization on firm performance.