Strategic Configurations and International Performance of Emerging Economy Multinationals

This study examines the international performance of emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) from a strategic configuration perspective. We propose that the strategic patterns of EMNEs that deliver growth and/or profitability are characterized by different configurations of environment, strategy, and managerial resource factors. Therefore, identifying and assessing strategic configurations is key to understanding EMNEs’ international performance. Employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, we analyze a multi-sourced dataset of Chinese firms’ outward investment and identify multiple equifinal strategic configurations that are associated with superior international performance in terms of sales growth and/or profitability. These findings inform the development of a taxonomy of EMNEs’ strategic configurations corresponding with three performance groups, namely profitable growth, profitable niche, and poor performers. 本研究根据战略配置的观点来探讨新兴市场的企业国际化绩效问题。根据环境、战略与管理资源因素来进行不同的战略配置，新兴市场的企业可以实现不同的国际化市场与利润增长目标。因此，识别与评估战略配置成为理解新兴市场中的企业国际化绩效的关键一环。本研究引入模糊集定性比较方法，对中国上市企业海外投资样本进行分析，并从中识别出多类高国际化绩效战略配置。本研究的结果指出了开发新兴市场企业战略配置分类体系的必要性，并具体提出了三种类别的战略配置—绩效相关组态。它们分别是（1）高利润市场增长组态，（2）高利润细分市场组态，（3）低绩效组态。