نقش گروه های مرجع در تصمیمات سرمایه گذاری بین المللی توسط شرکت از اقتصادهای در حال ظهور

Investments in China by firms from emerging economies were studied to determine how various reference groups affect their foreign market entry behavior. Imitation was shown to be an important factor, but the mechanism seems to vary depending on the institutional environments in the host and the home market. Firms from emerging economies seem to rely on copying the entry decisions of peers from their home country, especially in locations where the risk of government meddling is greatest. The example of firms from developed economies was found to be less influential.

The factors triggering firms' foreign expansion have received extensive attention in international management literature. Research in this field has embraced the economic perspective viewing cost minimization as a driving force (see Caves, 1996, for a review), the capability-based perspective emphasizing capability building as an inducement (Chang, 1995 and Song, 2002), and, more recently, macro-organizational perspectives on international market entry such as institutional theory and organizational ecology (Guillén, 2002). These studies contribute substantially to our understanding of the reasons why multinational corporations (MNCs) expand into foreign arenas. However, they fall short in explaining the pattern of international diversification of firms from emerging economies, and the institutional contexts upon which this pattern is contingent (see Peng, et al., 2008).

The key findings of this research suggest that firms from emerging economies are more likely to invest in China when peers from the same country or from other emerging economies have already done so. In particular, the investment patterns of multinationals from Asian emerging economies serve as a more salient reference point than those of firms from non-Asian emerging economies. In addition, host location policy uncertainty and home country institutional distance moderate these influences, such that mimicry is enhanced under conditions of higher policy uncertainty and narrower institutional distance.