International Business Theories and Internationalization of Emerging Economies

Dear Colleagues,

Presently, a set of key issues come on the surface concerning the development of international business theories. New realities are taking place in which, among other prospects, the process of globalization is put to test. Thus, numerous issues appear that need research. They come in a variety in terms of aspects, such as how firms originating from emerging economies internationalize their business. This integrative issue brings in further aspects of research such as a variety of underexplored issues, internationalization of emerging economy firms when entering developed or emerging economy markets, including markets at the bottom of the pyramid, internationalization and respective business models applied, value creation and co-creation in foreign markets, modes of market entry applied by emerging economy firms encompassing exporting, contractual modes of foreign market entry, and foreign direct investment. The submissions should take both a geographic and thematic approach to the topic of internationalization of emerging economy firms. Challenges to the internationalization of emerging economy firms should be addressed in the submissions of universal as well as country-specific nature. Submissions should also provide outlines of the strategies and operations involved in the internationalizing of emerging economy firms.

The suitability of extant international business theories has been put to the test as they were developed in a different time period and seem to be rather unspecific to elucidate the specificities of the internationalization process applied by emerging economy firms. There is a need to revisit existing international business theories by indicating ways for new inputs in existing theoretical foundations considering, simultaneously, the specificities of the home and host country contexts in the internationalization of firms from emerging economies. Submissions to this Special Issue should contain in-depth reviews of the available pertinent theoretical literature on the international spreading out of firms in general and the internationalization of emerging economy firms in particular. The prospective submissions should analyze the collected data from a variability of contexts associated with the internationalization of emerging economy firms and propose suggestions for further relevant theorizing in this field.

Focus of the Special Issue: This Special Issue is focused on the thinkable theoretical inputs that will enhance the existing theoretical foundations of international business via taking the perspective of analyzing the internationalization processes of emerging economy firms and suggesting contributions to the existing international business theories.

Scope: The Special Issue has a broad scope both geographically and thematically. From a geographic point of view, all internationalizing emerging economy firms regardless of where they originate from can be included in the submissions. Thematically, submissions must have a departing point of a review of the extant literature related to the theoretical basis of international business concerning firm internationalization.

Purpose: The purpose of the Special Issue is to contribute to the extant literature on firm internationalization via analyzing the processual specifics of the internationalization of emerging economy firms.

Overall: Integrating the above specified focus, the scope and purpose of the Special Issue is to make a significant contribution to the extant literature on international business theory, as for at least a decade there has been a continuous debate about the completeness and suitability of the existing international business theories in explaining and understanding the internationalization of firms.

Prof. Dr. Marin A. Marinov
Prof. Dr. Eric Milliot
Prof. Dr. Daojuan Wang
Guest Editors

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• international business theories
• firm internationalization
• emerging economies
• internationalization process