The Smirk of Emerging Market Firms: A Modification of the Dunning's Typology of Internationalization Motivations

In the past two decades, emerging market multinationals (EMMs) have been trying to catch up with developed market multinationals (DMMs) and are increasingly making their presence felt on the global competitive landscape. It is essential for DMMs to monitor the strategies and geographical footprint of EMM operations more closely, or DMMs could cede competitive advantage to EMMs. In this study, we evaluate the adequacy of the Dunning typology of multinational enterprise (MNE) internationalization motivations in classifying the international investment motives of EMMS and DMMs. While recognizing the importance of country-level determinants of international expansions, we focus on a firm-level theoretical framework (the value chain) to present a modified typology of the international investment motivations consisting of six categories namely: 1) End-Customer-Market Seeking, 2) Natural Resource Seeking, 3) Downstream and Upstream Knowledge Seeking, 4) Efficiency Seeking, 5) Global Value Consolidation Seeking, and 6) Geopolitical Influence Seeking. We discuss the implications of the modified typology as well as future research directions.