Internationalization Strategies of Emerging Market Multinationals: A Five M Framework

Traditionally, few companies were worried about Chinese, Indian, or Russian companies becoming important global players. Now companies from emerging market economies are starting to do just this and are emerging as significant global competitors. It is clearly time to pay attention to emerging market multinational corporations as serious competitors. This article seeks to help with this task by investigating the internationalization of firms from China, India, and Russia, and developing an understanding of what firms from transforming economies should do to increase their chances of success. The article also shows that they internationalize for different reasons using different entry mode ordering and by initially entering different countries than would their Western counterparts. This article develops a new framework called the Five M framework to guide managers and academics in their understanding of the internationalization of firms from transforming economies. With the help of illustrative examples from 18 mini case studies, this article investigates the motivations, markets, entry modes, methods, and management practices that have allowed these firms to be successful.