Micropolitics in emerging market multinational corporations (EMNCs) as a field of new research

In recent years, foreign direct investment from and to emerging markets has seen an unprecedented rise. In 2013, 61 per cent of worldwide foreign direct investment (FDI) was targeted at developing countries and emerging markets (UNCTAD 2014). At the same time, the share of emerging market FDI in total FDI has been growing rapidly over the last decade. In 2013, 39 per cent of worldwide FDI (outflow) was undertaken by MNCs from developing countries and emerging markets (UNCTAD 2014). The growing importance of FDI to and, more importantly, from emerging markets has triggered a debate in international business and management (IB&M) as to what extent Western models of internationalization appropriately capture the internationalization motivations and internationalization advantages of EMNCs. Paralleling the general discussion in IB&M on the adequacy of arrived theories within the context of EMNCs, we would like to raise the question to what extent our current perspective on politics, power and conflict in MNCs adequately captures such processes in EMNCs. As we will outline below, there is reason to believe that the different competitive advantages, motives and patterns of internationalization that have been associated with EMNCs may also play out in different dynamics of micropolitics within these firms. Taking a closer look at the politics and power literature on MNCs, it is fair to say that this strand of literature has so far failed to ask how and why politics, power and conflict may play out differently in emerging market multinationals (see Chapter 3, or recent reviews by Geppert and Dörrenbächer 2014; Blazejewski and Becker-Ritterspach 2011). Looking at the nascent literature on EMNCs there is also little concern with politics, power and conflict. Notable exceptions are here some contributions in an edited volume from Hadjikhani et al. (2012) entitled Business, Society and Politics: Multinationals in Emerging Markets and a special issue edited by Yeung et al. (2008) entitled ‘Growth and globalisation: evolution of human resource management practices in Asia’. The edited volume by Hadjikhani et al. (2012) explores, for instance, how MNCs interact with socio-political actors in emerging markets. While this work offers interesting insights into the relevant socio-political actors in the business environments of MNCs in and from emerging markets, it does not provide a genuine perspective on politics and power within EMNCs.