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International Business and Emerging Economy Firms: The Contexts of Central and Eastern Europe and Africa

  • Svetla T. MarinovaEmail author
  • Jorma A. Larimo
  • Tiina Leposky
  • Marin A. Marinov
Chapter
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Part of the Palgrave Studies of Internationalization in Emerging Markets book series (PSIEM)

Abstract

The internationalisation of firms from emerging and transition economies has become a rather debatable area of research in international business (IB). The debates are often drawn to the issue whether well-established theories in IB can offer plausible explanations of the motives and approaches used by firms from these economies when internationalising and serving foreign markets. While such firms are usually lagging behind in the scope and scale of their international activities when compared to their developed economy counterparts as they come from economies that are arguably at the lower stages of the Investment Development Path (Dunning and Narula in Foreign direct investment and governments: Catalysts for economic restructuring. Routledge, London, 1995; Gorynia, Nowak and Wolniak, Eastern European Economics 45:52–74, 2007; Bensebaa in Assisted development in the light of the investment development path paradigm: Evidence from Central and Eastern European countries, 2008; Kutzel in Journal of East-West Business 23: 65–87, 2017), many of these firms, especially when positioned in niche markets, engage in rapid early internationalisation showing enviable agility and adaptability supported by innovative solutions either targeting specific unmet customer needs or by the use of composition capabilities formulating offers that can satisfy existing needs in new ways and at a lower price point.

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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2020

Authors and Affiliations

  • Svetla T. Marinova
    • 1
    Email author
  • Jorma A. Larimo
    • 2
  • Tiina Leposky
    • 3
  • Marin A. Marinov
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Business and ManagementAalborg UniversityAalborgDenmark
  2. 2.Faculty of Business StudiesUniversity of VaasaVaasaFinland
  3. 3.School of Marketing and CommunicationUniversity of VaasaVaasaFinland

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