Unpacking the drivers of emerging market firms’ international joint venture formation: The interplay between technological innovation strategies and home- and host-institutional pressures

We explore how the different innovation strategies influence the propensity of emerging market firms with state ownership (FSOs) to form international joint ventures (IJVs). We argue that the different types of innovation strategies employed by emerging market FSOs affect the likelihood that they form IJVs differently. We propose that FSOs pursuing an explorative innovation strategy are more likely to engage in IJVs, whereas those that employ an exploitative innovation strategy are less likely to form IJVs. Additionally, using the institution-based lens, we further propose that the contributions of the different innovation strategies of FSOs to form IJVs are shaped positively by the different levels of home- and host-country institutional pressures. Using 364 Chinese FSOs, we test our hypotheses and find strong support for our arguments. Our study contributes to the literature by offering an important theoretical bridge between the exploration–exploitation framework and the institution-based perspective in the context of emerging market FSOs.