International Business Strategy in Emerging Country Markets

Emerging markets have provided the bulk of market growth globally in the last decades. Spanning Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, they are implementing economic and institutional changes that are opening them up for international business. Income growth and the growth of their companies are providing opportunities for foreign firms. In the next decade, these markets, constituting almost 80% of the world’s population will surpass the developed economies in market size. At the same time, challenges exist in succeeding in these markets due to the institutional differences, instability, and speedy changes in comparison to developed markets. Despite similarities between them mentioned above, these markets have some important differences. It is, thus, important to study them, understand their opportunities and challenges and develop appropriate strategies that help firms to succeed. These societies have been called network societies and the importance of institutions, traditional culture, relationships and networks, makes the institutional network approach (Jansson, 2007) a potent framework for understanding them and developing appropriate strategies. On its part, the resource-based view provides a classical strategy approach to competition, which can be applied in emerging markets. The course presents both perspectives and applies them to analyze the strategies of companies. The course also takes up corporate sustainability and responsibility as these are increasingly important challenges for companies doing business in emerging markets.