Multinational firms from emerging economies in Africa, global standards and host country development

摘要

Interests in the internationalization of firms from emerging economies, such as China, India and Russia, have soared in recent years (e.g. Boisot and Meyer 2008; Yiu, Lau and Bruton 2007; Yilmaz, Cooke and Dellios 2007). This expanding body of studies has shed light on the motives, entry strategies and performance of internationalizing firms across different ownership forms. However, detailed studies that compare firms in different industries, e.g. telecom v. manufacturing industries, and their human resource management (HRM) remain limited. This is in spite of the fact that these firms' internationalization strategy and operating environment in the host countries may differ significantly due to industry-related factors. In addition, country-of-origins have been found to have influence on the multinational corporations' (MNC) business and HR strategy, although industry is argued to be the more important factors (e.g. Brewster, Wood and Brookes 2008). However, few studies have been conducted to compareMNCs fromemerging economies to identify if country-specific factors may play a role in their business and HR strategy and what wider impacts their strategy may have on the economic and social development of the host country.