قواعد بازی برای شرکت های چند ملیتی بازار نوظهور چین و هند

The prominence of Emerging Market Multinational Companies (EMNCs) in the global marketplace has challenged our assumptions about the nature of global competition and corresponding strategy. We use an inductive approach to conduct historical analysis of eight companies that originated from key emerging markets viz China and India. We examine the various strategies that EMNCs devise to circumvent the resource challenges faced in their home markets and develop routines and key capabilities that lead to their competitive advantage in developed nations. Our results suggest that EMNCs' foreign expansion is, on the one hand, based on their capability to acquire resources and absorb them to build their own advantage (supply-side-argument). On the other hand, it is also based on EMNCs' capability to find some market niches, i.e., entering into markets untapped by traditional MNCs (demand-side-argument). Finally, based on our analysis we propose a dynamic stages model suggesting that EMNCs' foreign expansion can be explained in three stages — licking the dirt to carve out the way; taking off with speed and strength; and around the world with excellence.

Emerging economies as a whole have continued to gain in prominence both, in terms of their contributions to global GDP as well as to foreign direct investment (FDI). By 2009, Japan and the United States' share of the world's FDI stock was falling while that of emerging economies was rising (Ramamurti, 2012). Some evidence also suggests that FDI flows from emerging economies are being targeted towards advanced economies in both resource industries and higher-value adding activities (Aulakh, 2007, Bartlett and Ghoshal, 2000, Cuervo-Cazurra and Genc, 2008 and Ramamurti and Singh, 2009). These insights posit an interesting question, such as ‘What factors are leading to this shift from the triad world dominance to the emerging markets?’ International business scholars have conducted substantial research2 on internationalization process (Anderson, 1993, Cavusgil, 1980, Dunning, 2001 and Johanson and Vahlne, 1990), multinational companies' (MNCs) strategy (Kogut, 1985, Ohmae, 1999 and Rugman, 2003), and foreign direct investment (FDI) (Kuemmerle, 1999 and Wells, 1998). We read conversations that identify the various challenges and opportunities faced by traditional MNCs as they enter and operate in the emerging markets (Govindarajan and Ramamurti, 2011). Some others have discussed ‘Reverse Innovation — developing products in countries like China and India and then distributing them globally’ ( Immelt et al., 2009 and Govindarajan and Ramamurti, 2011). However, the focus of these discussions has mainly been MNCs originating from the developed world and the ones whose competitive advantage is based on technological superiority. With the emerging markets growth rising and that in the developed nations declining the rules of the game seem to be changing (Aulakh, 2007, Aulakh et al., 2000 and Tsai and Eisingerich, 2010). The key players in today's global markets are both, MNCs from developed nations and the Emerging Nation Multinational Companies (EMNCs) that are starting to carve out their place in the global market place. Recent studies (Kothari, 2009, Kothari and Kotabe, 2010a and Kothari and Kotabe, 2010b) provide evidence that the consumption patterns of developed nation consumers is shifting as they: a) use high speed computers with the Chinese EMNC, Lenovo logo on it; b) consume generic drugs manufactured and sold by Indian companies like, Ranbaxy Labs or Dr. Reddy Labs, that have significant shelf space in the local pharmacies; c) deal with financial institutions, airlines, and hospitals that are backed by technology services designed by Indian technology companies like, Wipro Technologies or Infosys Systems; and d) buy cell phone equipment made by Huawei Technologies and use networks supported by ZTE equipment both, from China. This highlights that times have changed and the incumbent MNCs (studied earlier) constantly face threats from the emerging giants. While these EMNCs are gaining a strong foothold in the global economy we know very little about what contributes to their ability to initiate innovations in the global marketplace. There is some speculation that uniqueness of EMNCs lies in their country of origin (Cuervo-Cazurra and Genc, 2011 and Ramamurti, 2012) and institutional environments (Meyer et al., 2011), which shape firms' market as well as non-market advantages (Cuervo-Cazurra and Genc, 2011). However, this is contrary to the conventional wisdom that suggests emerging nations have a plethora of institutional voids. So how do these firms innovate without the resource and ownership advantages? Is it that the conditions in their home market induce EMNCs to create particular resources to compete at home? Under the current location pattern, high value-added activities are largely performed in advanced market economies, with low value-added activities performed in emerging market economies (Mudambi, 2008). So, it is essential to develop some understanding of how EMNCs skill-up these innovations to internationalize and meet the needs of their global customers? And how do EMNCs move up the value chain? In order to understand how EMNCs alter their strategies and business models to fit the changing environment and participate in the global market we conduct in-depth historical analysis of eight EMNCs that originated from two key emerging markets China and India. While China is the “workshop of the world” and it is competitive in manufacturing, India excels in skill-intensive services with a ratio of trade in services to GDP of 15%, versus 7% for China (Luo et al., 2011). Both these countries bring a different set of players to global marketplace. Since this study aims to understand the rules of the game, we choose to study a variety of EMNCs as they represent different industries and nations and originate from both manufacturing and service sectors. In this longitudinal study we use content analysis tools to analyze the evolution of the EMNCs through their life span and to understand how these EMNCs have expanded into foreign nations. Through a computerized content analysis, we attempt to examine how EMNCs devise strategies to circumvent the institutional uncertainties in their home markets and develop routines and key capabilities that lead to their competitive advantage when they transition to developed nations. Based on our historical analysis of these EMNCs, we outline the factors that contribute EMNCs' capability of surviving in their institutional environments in their home (emerging) countries and to simultaneously scale-up and adapt their innovations to the developed nations with significantly different institutional environments. The results of this inductive approach suggest that EMNCs' foreign expansion is, on one hand, based on their ability to acquire resources and absorb them to build their own advantage (supply-side-argument). On the other hand, it is based on EMNCs' ability to find some market niches, i.e., entering into markets untapped by traditional MNCs (demand-side-argument). Finally, an in-depth analysis of our sources suggested that there was a similar pattern in the histories and behavior of all eight firms over time even though the timing (actual years) did not correspond for the firms. So, we propose a dynamic stages model suggesting that EMNCs foreign expansion can be explained in three stages viz, licking the dirt to carve out the way; taking off with speed and strength; and around the world with excellence. The paper is structured as follows. The first section provides a summary discussion on existing literature and its ability to explain the innovation by EMNCs. We then briefly describe the method used to conduct the historical-analysis of multiple companies. Finally, based on our in-depth analysis we identify a dynamic stages model followed by a brief discussion of the potential contributions of this study.

Accelerating growth in emerging economies and the simultaneous slowing down of developed economies have shined the spotlight on consumers' needs in emerging markets and the EMNCs. Compared to the flow of innovations and technology from rich to poor countries, flows in the opposite direction are evolving. Our results suggest that the innovations by the EMNCs are increasingly finding their way to the rest of the world, including developed economies. Although, the innovations by EMNCs are probably minuscule in number our historical analysis suggests that the innovative activity in emerging economies is much greater than it has ever been and that it is diffusing upward to developed nations. Given the relative newness of this issue, our claims here are relatively unpretentious. This research contributes to the extant literature in several ways. First, this study uses a historical and in-depth study design to completely understand the EMNCs' foreign expansion to developed nations unlike, a few existing studies that are based solely on the use of financial measures (Contractor et al., 2007 and Khanna and Rivkin, 2001). Second, prior research documents the EMNCs' ability to overcome institutional voids (Cuervo-Cazurra and Genc, 2008) to counter foreign multinationals both, in their local markets or in markets with similar institutional environments (Aulakh, 2007). We take this a step further to explain that EMNCs possess unique ‘lick the dirt’ capabilities that not only enable them to compete in similar institutional environments but empower them to be competitive in distant and developed institutional environments. Our arguments explain that despite the absence of non-market advantages EMNCs build capabilities to survive their rough institutional environments and scale-up to compete with MNCs not only in their domestic environments but also in developed nations. This literature tends to assume that distance always has a negative impact on the operations of the MNC abroad. However, the historical analysis presented here suggests that with the appropriate innovation capabilities and catch-up strategies EMNCs can overcome the distance and excel in the developed nation markets. This study also makes some significant contributions to the research methods used in international management studies by using computerized text analysis to uncover historical data about firms from emerging nations. Since the sample includes a mix of both service and manufacturing firms, the results of this study provide robust comparisons of the different strategies used by firms in the different industry and country level contexts, thus reaching more generalizable conclusions compared to some prior studies that are based on a single emerging market sample (Buckley et al., 2007, Chittoor et al., 2009 and Khanna and Palepu, 2006). A number of future research directions are suggested. First, given that the unit of analysis in this paper is eight cases, future research might focus on a larger number of EMNCs to empirically test the propositions made through the inductive analysis. Second, multiple levels of factors some macro, while others micro, influence strategically important decisions such as EMNCs' participation in the global marketplace. While the historical-analysis in this paper provides us with largely accurate macro information, future researches can obtain the micro level information by methods, such as field studies, participant observations, structured or semi structured interviews, and process models. Given that, due to its exploratory nature this study focuses only on successful EMNCs. Further, researchers can attempt to understand the innovation process by focusing on both large and small firms to enhance the explanations provided in this paper. This study briefly touches upon the interaction between EMNCs and MNCs in developed nations. It would be interesting to further study a broader sample set of interactions of these organizations at different stages of the innovation process.