Emerging Market Multinational Companies and Internationalization: A Multilevel Study of the Influence of Home Country and Industry Conditions

This paper furthers our understanding of the role of contextual conditions influencing internationalization of emerging market multinational companies (EMNCs). We use resource-based, industrial organization, and economic development theories to develop a multilevel theoretical framework for investigating the importance of specific contextual factors at home country as well as industry level for EMNC international expansion. We develop a multilevel theoretical framework for investigating the importance of specific contextual factors at the home country and industry level that may act as either enablers or barriers to international expansion of EMNCs. The empirical counterpart studies 790 EMNCs from 18 different countries and largely confirms our hypotheses. We find that intangible resources are more important for firms operating in globalized industries. In addition, while the level of urbanization of the home country enhances the effects of tangible resources, it reduces the impact of intangible firm level resources on firm internationalization. We discuss these findings in relation to international business theories and illustrate the importance of context for EMNC internationalization.