Promoting African digital multinationals for a more inclusive post-pandemic future

This paper advances policies for promoting the intraregional and international investment prospects of African digital multinationals in the post-pandemic era. Based on the building blocks of organizational capabilities, funding access, digital infrastructure and regulatory environment, it advocates a more globally inclusive investment landscape in which African-born digital multinationals would no longer be a rarity. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 crisis and its amplification of humankind’s shared and digital future, policymakers and influential stakeholders at all levels are challenged to intensify the push for a more inclusive global digital economy

Why do some African multinationals invest outside their home region? Should they?

This study draws on preliminary case evidence to explore the motivations and advisability of nascent African MNEs’ engagement in outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) activities outside their home region. It complements recent research on MNEs from emerging markets, which has dominantly focused on the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) economies, with virtually no attention to potentially important players from rising Africa. The MNEs explored in this study originate from the energy, manufacturing, construction, chemicals, agribusiness, extractive/mining, and financial services sectors, and they have investment footprints in several economies of the Global ‘South’ and the advanced North. Their OFDI moves to both economic groupings seem to be commonly motivated by the search for market opportunities, strategic assets/resources and performance-boosting relationships, though more advanced economies appear to attract more strategic asset-seeking FDI from nascent African MNEs. The paper argues that intraregional investments by African MNEs should continue to attract primary attention, but selective and strategic extra-regional FDI, undertaken with an eye on further global competitiveness, also requires appropriate policy support. This seems even more sensible given that the prevalence and acceleration of borderless digital internationalisation and the increasingly blurred nationality of MNE affiliates are lessening the relevance of regional distinctions

Top barriers and drivers to SME internationalisation

This report presents the main findings of work undertaken in 2007-2008 by the OECD Working Party on SMEs and Entrepreneurship in the framework of its activity on SME Internationalisation. Internationalisation and international entrepreneurship among SMEs is a topic of considerable relevance, principally owing to the observed growth effects of cross-border venturing, and the demonstrated capacity of SMEs to drive economic development at national, regional and global levels. A new report presents an in-depth analysis of the top barriers to SME internationalisation identified in previous OECD-APEC research, and offers deeper understanding of the measures aimed at addressing top barriers. It also reviews recent work on the factors that drive the internationalisation of SMEs

International marketing knowledge and international entrepreneurship in the contemporary multi speed global economy

The past two decades have witnessed the relentless advancement of a body of knowledge focused on explaining aspects of firms’ entrepreneurial internationalisation behaviour. The cross disciplinary ethos of this nascent field is amply reflected in the wealth of international entrepreneurship (IE) studies that actively bridge the contiguous domains of international marketing, international management, international business and much else. The present Special Issue extends this admirable tradition by showcasing boundary spanning research that contributes to both theory and practice. The selected papers have drawn on a range of theoretical perspectives to further understanding of how emerging developments, including technological advances, in the multi-speed global economy are affecting entrepreneurs’ internationalisation activities

Institutional influences on SME exporters under divergent transition paths: comparative insights from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

This paper compares the influence of national institutional environments on the internationalisation of SME exporters from two countries, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which followed divergent paths in the transition process. It contributes in several ways, notably by extending scholarly debate on divergent paths of transition to the IB literature, and enriching the institution-based view of IB with perspectives from the new institutional economics and comparative institutionalism and offering fresh evidence of how formal and informal institutions and the enforcement mechanism interact to create specific incentives and barriers for internationalising SMEs. The study, one of the first to examine SME exporters from the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia, cautions against the tendency to attribute countries in the transitional periphery with homogenous institutional environments. Analysis of case study evidence suggests appreciable differences in the institutional environments facing SME exporters in the comparator countries. More specifically, SME exporters in Tajikistan seem to experience tougher institutional constraints relative to their Kyrgyzstan counterparts, and this divergence in institutional environments appears to affect the internationalisation prospects and competitiveness of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan SME exporters adversely and favourably respectively. The above findings are richly illustrated in the paper, which also discusses implications for theory, managerial and policy decision making and future research

Towards advancing African management scholarship

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.This paper aims to address the main arguments put forward in Grietjie Verhoef’s article and contribute to a wider debate among management scholars on the role of indigenous theories. It challenges the view of African management as illusory and points to the rising support for indigenous theories as indicative of the weakening of the unquestioned dominance of universal theories

Nascent multinationals from West Africa: are their foreign direct investment motivations any different?

Purpose – This study explores the motivations underpinning the foreign direct investment (FDI) activities, including location and entry mode decisions, of nascent multinational enterprises (MNEs) from West Africa. Design/methodology/approach – This research adopted a case study approach entailing the triangulation of interview data with documentary evidence on two leading West African financial service companies that have FDI footprints in over 50 country markets. Findings - Evidence suggests the primacy of market-seeking motivations in explaining the FDI activities of the explored nascent MNEs, with relationship, efficiency and mission-driven motivations emerging as strong sub-themes. Having neither the global resonance of their traditional counterparts nor the government-augmented resource profile of their Asian counterparts, the study firms appear to have shied away from costly strategic asset and prestige-seeking FDI, and preferred psychically and institutionally proximate sub-Saharan African markets and non-organic collaborative entry modes. Research limitations/implications – The above insights should be considered tentative given the study’s limited evidence base. This underscores the need for a larger scale empirical effort to assess the propositional inventory outlined at the end of this paper. Practical implications - Africa’s growing population of MNEs are urged to continue to strengthen their positions across African markets, view these regional markets as a platform to learn and upgrade their capabilities for future expansion into more challenging global markets, and to augment their limited resource profiles, including by tapping into their global diaspora networks. Policy makers should support their market-seeking initiatives given evidence that they could be a pathway to higher order FDI motivations. This evolutionary approach reflects enduring lessons from earlier generations of MNEs. Policy makers should also support continuing intra-African investment flows as a pathway to creating more sizeable, integrated African markets and generating positive spill-overs, including in typically blind-sided post-conflict or fragile African markets. This also entails pushing for cross-border regulation needed to minimise the transfer of systemic risks across countries. Originality/value – The study provides rare empirical evidence on hitherto neglected MNEs from sub-Saharan Africa, thus extending the geographic compass of research on FDI motivations. It identifies some distinctive aspects of the explored MNEs’ FDI behaviour, including the previously unheralded mission-driven motivation, whilst also revealing shared characteristics with traditional MNEs and EMNEs

Consolidating and advancing knowledge on the post-entry performance of international new ventures

This paper consolidates emerging evidence on factors influencing the post-entry performance of INVs. It also addresses the challenging question of how to effectively measure performance in the entrepreneurial internationalisation context. The discussion presents and reflects on empirical findings from the studies included in the current Special Issue on INVs’ post-entry performance, extends debates on the themes examined and performance measures employed, whilst also acknowledging issues requiring future investigation. Notably, the studies’ findings reinforce previous evidence on the performance-enhancing effects of exposure to diverse, extra-regional market. Support is also reported for the importance of learning capabilities, but the relevant study goes even further to show how these capabilities interact with INVs’ strategies and resources to enhance post-entry performance. INV setting is especially difficult for the performance measurement as internationalization requires resources and young age means that firms are early in their life-cycle and financial performance, for example, may not be relevant. The paper also addresses the issues associated with measuring post-entry performance among INVs and discusses next steps and future research implications

Internationalization's effect on marketing learning: a study of Syrian firms

The aim of the present study is to understand the effects of international expansion on firms' acquisition of marketing learning. This study's focus on marketing learning complements previous research on the impact of internationalization on the development of foreign-market and technological knowledge. The research finds that the scope of a firm's international activities, perception of gaps in marketing knowledge, and external social capital positively influence firms' acquisition of marketing learning. However, firm's age at initial international market entry appears not to be a significant factor. The study adds to the very limited body of research on the marketing learning outcomes of international expansion, while also offering rare empirical insights from the Middle East on this important subject matter. The paper discusses implications for international managers, policy makers, and future researchers

UK export performance research - review and implications

Previous research on export performance has been criticized for being a mosaic of autonomous endeavours and for a lack of theoretical development. Building upon extant models of export performance, and a review and analysis of research on export performance in the UK for the period 1990-2005, an integrated model of export performance is developed and theoretical explanations of export performance are put forward. It is suggested that a multi-theory approach to explaining export performance is viable. Management and policy implications for the UK emerging from the review and synthesis of the literature and the integrated model are discussed