The Motivation of the Born Global Enterprises from Emerging Economics:A Configuration Analysis based on QCA Method
Since the 21st century,with the market expansion and the deepening of international division of labor,the trend of global economic integration has become increasingly prominent.Emerging economies'multinational enterprises(EMNEs)have begun to integrate and allocate resources globally,aiming at cultivating stronger international competitive advantages.Uppsala model provides a framework to explain the process of enterprise internationalization.It holds that enterprise internationalization is a process of learning or accumulating knowledge,and as a result,acquiring experience becomes the motivation for enterprises to carry out internationalization.However,some enterprises have made significant overseas investments and obtained remarkable achievements without following such path dependence.The emergence of born global enterprises has greatly weakened the realistic explanatory power of traditional outward foreign direct investment(OFDI)theory,leading to a theoretical confrontation between the Uppsala model and the born global.Although this phenomenon has prompted scholars to investigate what factors lead to born global,few studies have got in depth and obtained remarkable findings.Based on 178 OFDI events conducted by Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2008-2019,this paper theoretically explains the reasons why a group of EMNEs are born global from three perspectives,composed by innovation advantages,overseas social network and international entrepreneurship.Qualitative comparative analysis(QCA)is used to reveal the complex causes of the born global EMNEs.The results of the configuration analysis show that"the multiple concurrency"of innovation advantages,overseas social networks and international entrepreneurship conditions form diverse configuration patterns of born global,with the obvious characteristic of"different paths leading to the same destination".Namely,the seven elements,such as innovation outcome orientation,innate innovation orientation,innovation process orientation,weak relationship network,strong relationship network,action foresight and risk-taking constitute six paths and four modes of born global EMNEs.Further,,there is a complex relationship inside different antecedents,that is,in terms of innovation advantages,the stack effect or the crowding effect between the pairs of innovation outcome orientation,innate innovation orientation and innovation process orientation in different situations,while and the crowding effect between weak and strong relationship networks in terms of overseas social networks.Compared with previous studies,this paper has probably made the following contributions.First,it explores the driving mechanism of multifactor combinations for born global EMNEs,by integrating factors of innovation advantage,overseas social networks and international entrepreneurship.The results reveal that EMNEs need to couple heterogeneous resources to overcome the liability of foreignness.The existing studies still remain at the theoretical level,however,this paper innovatively utilizes QCA to construct a systematic framework for explaining born global under the multi-perspective theory.Secondly,it provides richer insights and evidence on the modes of born global EMNEs.It proves that a single element cannot successfully drive born global enterprises,and different elements have complex interactions with each other.This finding cracks the dilemma that the traditional single perspective cannot adequately explain the phenomenon of born global,and it also further refines the relationship between different perspectives in the integration framework of born global.Thirdly,based on the Chinese scenario,this paper explores the factors that drive the born global EMNEs by using the QCA method,responding to the call for the establishment of a systematic framework and mechanism of born global.By using the QCA method,this paper not only enriches the methodological toolbox in the field of born global research,but also provides empirical data to support the presentation of the typicality,diversity and complexity of the motivation of born global represented by Chinese multinational enterprises.
born globaloutward foreign direct investmentemerging economy multinational enterprisesqualitative comparative analysis
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