Overcoming the liability of outsidership for emerging market MNEs: A capability-building perspective

This paper develops and discusses a model describing how multinational enterprises from emerging economies (EMNEs) overcome the liability of outsidership in their internationalization from a capability-building perspective. Our aim is to celebrate the important intellectual contribution of Johanson and Vahlne (J Int Bus Stud 40(9):1411–1431, 2009), who introduced the liability of outsidership concept. We first discuss learning from the local environment that can reduce outsidership, and then explain how greater absorptive capacity can translate into better performance internationally. Finally, we elaborate on how the institutional environment further conditions the process and the outcomes of learning. We conclude with some suggestions for future research from five theoretical perspectives: learning, social network theory, institutional theory, resource dependence theory, and MNE structure and design.