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Purpose How does emerging market multinational enterprises’ (EM MNEs) resource vulnerability to domestic institutional weakness influence the escapist outward foreign direct investment (OFDI)? This study aims to focus on how varying qualities of technological resources make EM MNEs vulnerable to institutional weakness at home and when such a vulnerability triggers escapist OFDI. Design/methodology/approach A mix of primary and secondary data is used to study evidence of escapist OFDI in the case of multilatinas. Structural equation modelling and hierarchical regressions were applied to test the hypotheses. Findings Domestic institutional weakness triggers escapist OFDI only when EM MNEs’ resources are vulnerable to institutional pressures. Technological leadership increases the vulnerability of EM MNEs to the pressure of institutional weaknesses at home, which, in turn, motivates escapist OFDI. Originality/value In discussing the role of firm resources and their vulnerability to institutional weakness, a mechanism is proposed to shed light on how EM MNEs transform the general country framework of the institutional environment into the specific decision to escape via OFDI.

Objective: This article discusses why digital start-ups are flourishing in Latin America. Method: Our research setting is Latin American digital companies. Our analysis is based on digital companies from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia. We examined lists of Latin unicorn companies (valuation + US$ 1B) and other prominent digital companies compiled from available sources from CB Insights, and TechCrunch. We systematically gathered data on the companies’ growth trajectory from data sources, including online material from the companies’ official websites and public reports, press releases, and press interviews made by the heads of the companies, and internal reports. Main Results: The article discusses the drivers behind the scaling and expansion of digital start-ups and the increasing maturity of the entrepreneurial ecosystems that support them. Relevance / Originality: While Latin digital companies have gained media and investors’ attention, there is scant analysis of how these companies have surpassed the startup stage and scaled up their operations. Theoretical / Methodological Contributions: Our contribution focuses on understanding Latin America's particular conditions and the impact of digital ventures on the region's business landscape. We bring practical insights on how Latin American digital companies are growing, as digital entrepreneurship is experiencing an extraordinary growth route in the region and is linked to economic growth and innovation., Objetivo: Este artigo discute por que as start-ups digitais estão florescendo na América Latina. Método: Nosso cenário de pesquisa são as empresas digitais latino-americanas. Nossa análise está baseada em empresas digitais do Brasil, Argentina, México, Chile e Colômbia. Examinamos listas de empresas unicórnio latinas (avaliação + US$ 1 bilhão) e outras empresas digitais proeminentes, compiladas de fontes disponíveis da CB Insights e TechCrunch. Coletamos sistematicamente dados sobre a trajetória de crescimento das empresas de fontes de dados, incluindo material on-line dos sites oficiais das empresas e relatórios públicos, comunicados à imprensa e entrevistas à imprensa feitas pelos CEO das empresas e relatórios internos. Principais Resultados: O artigo discute os drivers por trás da escala e expansão de start-ups digitais e a crescente maturidade dos ecossistemas empreendedores que as sustentam. Relevância / Originalidade: Embora as empresas digitais latino-americanas tenham conquistado a atenção da mídia e dos investidores, há poucas análises de como essas empresas ultrapassaram o estágio inicial e ampliaram suas operações. Contribuições Teóricas / Metodológicas: Nossa contribuição está focada em entender as condições particulares da América Latina e o impacto dos empreendimentos digitais no cenário de negócios da região. Trazemos insights práticos de como as empresas digitais latino-americanas estão crescendo, já que o empreendedorismo digital está experimentando uma rota de crescimento extraordinária na região e está vinculado ao crescimento econômico e à inovação.

Migration is among the main factors influencing economic development in the twenty-first century. And while much research has explored the role of migration on economic growth, the role of diaspora for the development of the country-of-origin entrepreneurial ecosystems remains virtually unknown. We advance evidence that the entrepreneurial activity in a country does not depend only on the activities of the current residents but also on the ties that keep them interconnected via its diaspora to global entrepreneurial hubs and on the (intangible) resources that the diaspora makes available to local entrepreneurs. We perform a mixed-method study and provide evidence consistent with the idea that the diaspora stimulates opportunity-driven entrepreneurial activity despite potential conditions of a brain drain, by contributing essential social and human capital to the resources available locally.

Drawing on brand and innovation management literature, this article presents the development and testing of a theory about the way strong brands shape innovation orientation under conditions of institutional uncertainty. Using a unique database of sixty-two large Latin American multinationals (multilatinas), we illustrate that the strong brands of emerging multinationals interact with institutional uncertainty in the host market to shape the firms’ innovation orientation. We confirm the robustness of the results, by using secondary data on foreign direct investments, advertising, and R&D investments. The implications of our findings for managers of multinational companies are clear: While strong brands enhance the innovation orientation of emerging multinationals, conditions of institutional uncertainty in host markets weaken this relationship.

Domestic peacebuilding initiatives are frequently part of the national agenda in emerging economies. Many emerging MNCs (EMNCs) are called to build their international competitive advantage while p...

We study how the proximate and distal sociocultural environments affect the well-established relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions. We focus on the institutional individualism–collectivism orientation of nations and the presence of nascent entrepreneurs as moderators of this relationship to account for the multilayered nature of the context. We observe that for individuals with entrepreneurial self-efficacy the positive effect of knowing nascent entrepreneurs as a driver of entrepreneurial intentions is weaker than for individuals who do not believe to be able to successfully launch a business venture. This effect is contingent on the individualistic–collectivistic character of the national culture.

More attention must be paid to the multidimensional nature of competitiveness to better understand how competitiveness relates to personality and gender. We focus on three dimensions: Desire to Win (DW), Personal Development competitiveness (PD), and Enjoyment of Competition (EC). Our empirical exploratory analysis is based on a large sample of 1520 individuals. We control for interdimensional correlations, correct for multiple testing, and use conservative thresholds to provide robust evidence on dimension-specific associations of competitiveness with personality, operationalized via the HEXACO framework, and gender. Independent of the respectively other competitiveness dimensions, DW relates to less honesty-humility and less agreeableness, PD to more emotionality, and EC to more extraversion and less emotionality. EC is the sole source of gender differences among the correlated competitiveness dimensions.

In this AIB-Insights article, we discuss the drivers, types and outcomes of innovation management and delineate the elements of an innovation framework for emerging markets focusing on Latin America. Drawing on examples from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and some others countries, the piece explores how innovation contributes to the region’s economic growth, job creation, increase in both Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) outward direct investment (OFDI) and exports of more tech-intensive products and services. The paper presents new types and mechanisms for fostering innovation, emphasizes the importance of the institutional environment and describes the innovation “catch-up” dynamics in the region.

We analyze the role of industry-related factors in the performance of Colombian firms between 1995 and 2012. Using hierarchical linear models for variance decomposition, we find that the role of industry-related factors varies considerably when different measures of firm performance are analyzed and that it is smaller than the share of total variance explained by firm-specific factors. The estimations also allow exploring the role of intangible assets in profitability, revealing that intangible assets play a prominent role among the firm-specific drivers of performance. The evidence confirms the resilience of intangible assets as drivers of competitive advantage in an emerging environment.

This chapter is the first attempt to characterize Balkan entrepreneurial ecosystems that draws on well-recognized secondary sources as well as on primary data from startup applications and interviews with key stakeholders. It also highlights the entrepreneurial success stories that not only inspire but also create templates and offer insights for those interested in building and consolidating entrepreneurial ecosystems in the region and beyond. The strengths of and challenges facing Balkan entrepreneurs have previously been presented via traditional proxies and measures that overwhelmingly fail to reflect the energy, dynamics and prevailing optimism shared by participants in the entrepreneurial ecosystems. The chapter advances that Balkan entrepreneurial ecosystems are genuine and well-grounded and that they are well set to change the political and economic landscape of the region.

Every entrepreneurial ecosystem comes with its own character, specifics and local heroes. Especially when it comes to young entrepreneurial settings, there is need for in-depth analysis that accounts for historical and socio-cultural aspects along with local politics and economics. Using traditional benchmarks to understand how a young ecosystem is growing can be counterproductive; low Return on Investment (ROI) might raise alarm in mature ecosystems, but it is necessary for growing an entrepreneurial community. The Balkan ecosystem developed amidst a bumpy socio-economic context and revealed that there are factors that really matter and such that matter less for long-term success. The most important lesson from the Balkans experience is that local stories and local heroes matter most and should be celebrated from very early stage to serve as example and inspiration for the new generations of entrepreneurs that are needed for sustainable future growth.

The entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Balkans was not born in a vacuum but rather in the context of the current socio-economic dynamics, building on the human and economic capabilities that were developed during the Socialist period in the region. So, as much as Socialism suppressed natural entrepreneurship as a mindset, it actually shaped and nurtured the skills and capabilities that are at the heart of the entrepreneurial venture creation observed in the region today, in particular in ICT ventures.

The entrepreneurial ecosystem as a metaphor highlights the interconnectedness of the elements that comprise the whole system and transcends narrow industry boundaries. Institutions and rules shape this interconnectedness, but it is the people who engage directly in entrepreneurship who give the ecosystem its spirit. In this chapter, we present the profiles of would-be entrepreneurs and their early-stage ventures, as well as analysing the metrics that are intended to capture their ability to thrive and eventually become successful. A quantitative analysis of multi-year data from the investment funds Eleven and Launchub is used to provide a comparison with the findings of previous initiatives that attempted to characterize entrepreneurs and early-stage ventures. The methodological approach followed allows for direct comparisons with the results of these previous studies and allows us to discover the local flavour and dynamics of the entrepreneurial scene.

In this chapter, we use phenomenological analysis to discover how founders’ identity and the associated venture identity interact with investors’ interests in the genesis of ventures that combine private economic interest and societal purpose in the Balkans. There are different ways in which founders make sense of the intended venture in relation to a larger set of norms determined by the private economic versus societal purpose. Successfully financed Balkan ventures with a recognizable societal purpose crystallize their business models and generate both private economic and societal value by balancing founders’ identity and sensemaking and investor interests.

This chapter reviews the concept of an entrepreneurial ecosystem, taking the extant research as a point of departure. It positions the story of the young Balkan entrepreneurial ecosystem as an opportunity to inspect and enrich the concept and highlights the pivotal role of the mindset change that was provoked by the Balkan entrepreneurial pioneers. It celebrates entrepreneurship by showing how it can be embraced as a value and a way of thinking in societies with limited entrepreneurial traditions.

The challenges faced by Latin American multinationals, or multilatinas, often require unique strategies adapted to a demanding global environment. This book studies the strategies of internationalism exercised by large multilatinas, offering the first systematic and quantitative effort to examine the pattern of their international investments within the context of their competitive position in the domestic market. Multilatinas uncovers common strategies among sixty-two multilatinas from six countries, and emphasizes the unique challenges they face, as well as the diversity of their organizational resources. It also puts the institutional environment of Latin American countries in the foreground, evaluating its role as an essential component in understanding internationalization decisions. Finally, the book studies the role of non-market organizational resources, such as bribes, negotiations and favors in business strategies. Multilatinas is invaluable read for students, academics, professionals, and executives studying the place of Latin America in international business.

En este estudio se analiza el comportamiento de las empresas colombianas en industrias caracterizadas por olas de fusiones y adquisiciones durante el periodo 1995-2008. Se concluye que en terminos de rentabilidad, las empresas seguidoras muestran ventaja en comparacion con los primeros entrantes en la ola tres anos despues de la operacion. Se ofrecen recomendaciones a los gerentes que contemplan entrar en el mercado colombiano via fusiones o adquisiciones

Los gobiernos no siempre son el mecanismo mas efectivo para garantizar la seguridad de la inversion privada. En muchos paises los gobiernos son incapaces de hacer respetar los derechos de propiedad a pesar de que las leyes formalmente garantizan dichos derechos. Para estos casos existen por lo menos dos estrategias a nivel empresa que buscan aprovechar las oportunidades economicas y de desarrollo. Primero, las empresas pueden adoptar tecnologias que son menos susceptibles al problematico entorno institucional. Por ejemplo, para disminuir el riesgo de expropiacion oportunista se pueden adoptar versiones moviles y baratas de las tecnologias ya existentes. Segundo, los empresarios podran implementar politicas de motivacion de personal incluida la co-propiedad con los trabajadores para poder garantizar sus propios derechos de propiedad. De esta manera los trabajadores tienen incentivos para respetar la asignacion actual de los derechos de propiedad en vez de buscar redistribucion.

We study organisational forms in conflict-ridden zones of rural Colombia and analyse the impact of violence and subjective perceptions of insecurity on the choice of organisational modes. Based on ...