Beyond national markets: The case of emerging African multinationals

Barriers to entry and the role of African multinational corporations: Entrants in intermediate industrial products (inputs into construction)

“…At a regional level, potential gains arise from shared production, transfer of skills and technology, and market development between countries (Fessehaie et al 2015a). In the East and Southern African context, the rapid growth of industries and lead firms in South Africa has largely facilitated the growth of regional markets through large firms establishing effective value chains and distribution channels that feed into the region (das Nair and Chisoro 2015; Burke et al 2017;Esho and Verhoef 2020). South African firms have thus managed to take up lead positions in various markets across the region and have 'exported' anticompetitive practises in some cases (Paelo and Vilakazi 2017;das Nair and Chisoro 2015).…”

“…Research on multinationals from emerging markets such as Asia and South America has prompted much debate around the definition of an emerging market, as well as what constitutes a multinational (Esho and Verhoef 2020). The applicability of mainstream theories of the internationalization of multinational corporations (MNCs) is contested, with some scholars proposing new theoretical frameworks and others calling for the extension of existing theories (Ramamurti 2012;Buckley and Casson 2019;Esho and Verhoef 2020).…”

“…Research on multinationals from emerging markets such as Asia and South America has prompted much debate around the definition of an emerging market, as well as what constitutes a multinational (Esho and Verhoef 2020). The applicability of mainstream theories of the internationalization of multinational corporations (MNCs) is contested, with some scholars proposing new theoretical frameworks and others calling for the extension of existing theories (Ramamurti 2012;Buckley and Casson 2019;Esho and Verhoef 2020). Importantly for this paper, existing research on MNCs has generally overlooked the experiences of emerging AMNCs, particularly from outside the leading African economies such as Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa (Verhoef 2017;Buckley and Casson 2019;Esho and Verhoef 2020).…”

“…The applicability of mainstream theories of the internationalization of multinational corporations (MNCs) is contested, with some scholars proposing new theoretical frameworks and others calling for the extension of existing theories (Ramamurti 2012;Buckley and Casson 2019;Esho and Verhoef 2020). Importantly for this paper, existing research on MNCs has generally overlooked the experiences of emerging AMNCs, particularly from outside the leading African economies such as Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa (Verhoef 2017;Buckley and Casson 2019;Esho and Verhoef 2020). Esho and Verhoef (2020) and Bosiu and Vilakazi (2020) emphasize the existing gaps and lack of engagement with empirical evidence relating to particularly lesser known, nascent AMNCs from African countries other than South Africa.…”

“…Importantly for this paper, existing research on MNCs has generally overlooked the experiences of emerging AMNCs, particularly from outside the leading African economies such as Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa (Verhoef 2017;Buckley and Casson 2019;Esho and Verhoef 2020). Esho and Verhoef (2020) and Bosiu and Vilakazi (2020) emphasize the existing gaps and lack of engagement with empirical evidence relating to particularly lesser known, nascent AMNCs from African countries other than South Africa. The experiences of these AMNCs are important as they provided unique context in terms of the role that geography, cultural diversity, networks, and entrepreneurship in an African context play in expansion and internationalization activities across the continent.…”