The Role of Internationalization in Enhancing the Innovation Performance of Chinese EMNEs

This article enhances our understanding of how different internationalization paths by Emerging Multinational Enterprises (EMNEs) can affect performance. Using a geographic relational approach as well as a portfolio-level analysis, the authors consider six factors relating to entry mode and geography (entry mode, geographic breadth and depth, cultural and institutional distance, and the economic state of the host country). Focusing on the case of China, they find that Chinese EMNEs are able to improve their innovation performance based on subsidiaries that are built through mergers and acquisitions, located across multiple countries, distant from China (culturally), and located in an emerging country.

This piece originally appeared as Stefano Elia, Mario Kafouros, and Peter J. Buckley, “The Role of Internationalization in Enhancing the Innovation Performance of Chinese EMNEs: A Geographic Relational Approach,” Journal of International Management 26, no. 4 (December 2020). Copyright remains with the original holder.