Development of non‐local competences in foreign subsidiaries of Brazilian multinationals

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discover whether factors responsible for the existence of non‐local competences in emerging multinationals are different from those of traditional multinationals. Design/methodology/approach – Survey of 66 subsidiaries of Brazilian multinationals (BrMNes). This represents 70 percent of the 93 subsidiaries originally sampled. Findings – The factors responsible for the development of non‐local competences in BrMNes are: the relationship between subsidiaries and business networks, the initiatives of subsidiaries and the support of the entrepreneurial orientation of subsidiaries by the headquarters. Research limitations/implications – Even though emerging multinationals require more resources developed abroad and although some studies revealed that different management models had been adopted during the internationalization process, the factors required to develop non‐local competences in BrMNes are very similar to those required by traditional multinationals. Practical implications – Subsidiary innovation in partnership with the business network in the foreign country is essential to develop non‐local competences. Originality/value – The paper supports the results of studies of traditional multinationals and demonstrates that despite the differences of Brazilian multinationals the factors required to develop non‐local competences are very similar. This is an interesting result to consolidate knowledge about global competitive advantages in multinationals: the management model to develop non‐local competences seems to be the same, in order of importance, regardless of multinational origin.