Internationalization of Emerging Market Firms : A Case for Theoretical Extension

Research on internationalization of emerging market firms (EMFs) has received an increasing attention in the international management field. A central argument in a majority of these studies is that the internationalization of EMFs is different from that of firms from developed economies, and existing internationalization theories are insufficient to fully explain this new phenomenon. We conduct a critical review of important studies on the internationalization of EMFs to address two related questions. First, is the internationalization of EMFs really a new phenomenon, never been witnessed in the past? Second, does it warrant new theoretical developments? Our review suggests that there are important variations in the internationalization strategies of EMFs and developed economy firms and within EMFs from different emerging economies and during different time periods. A thorough understanding of motivations, paths, processes, and performances of EMFs does require new theoretical approaches that can take into account the unique aspects of EMFs