What Have We Learned About Emerging Market Mnes

What Have We Learned About Emerging Market Mnes

What Have We Learned About Emerging-Market MNEs?
Insights from a Multi-Country Research Project

Ravi Ramamurti Distinguished Professor of International Business Director, Center for Emerging Markets Northeastern University Hayden 309 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 Tel: (617) 373 4760

For presentation at the Conference on “Emerging Multinationals: Outward FDI from Emerging and Developing Economies”

Based on Ravi Ramamurti, “What Have We Learned about EMNEs,” In Ravi Ramamurti and Jitendra Singh (eds.) Emerging Multinationals from Emerging Markets, Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008a, Chapter 13.

Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark October 9-10, 2008

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What Have We Learned About Emerging-market MNEs? Ravi Ramamurti, Northeastern University The multi-country Northeastern U-Wharton School research project on Emerging-market MNEs (EMNEs) began with three research questions: What competitive advantages do EMNEs leverage as they internationalize, and how are those advantages shaped by the home-country context? How do EMNEs internationalize, and why? And, how is the rise of EMNEs affecting global industry dynamics? Underlying those questions was the theoretical question of whether existing international business (IB) frameworks are adequate to explain EMNE behavior, and if not, how they should be modified or extended. An international team of IB scholars participated in the project, which covered eight countries: the BRICs, plus Mexico, South Africa, Israel, and Thailand. Their initial findings were presented at a conference held at Northeastern University in June 2007. Revised papers, along with introduction and conclusion chapters, were accepted for publication by Cambridge University Press. This paper presents some of the insights gained from that project, as summarized in the book’s final chapter.1 The conference showed clearly that EMNEs were not a homogeneous group by any means. The countries from which they...