Cultivating relationships between foreign multinationals and barricaded government buyers in emerging markets

Although the markets-as-networks literature has revealed the embedded nature of buyer–seller relationships, there remains little knowledge of supplier relationships with government buyers who are often the biggest customers in many economies worldwide. Specifically, little is known about how foreign multinationals sell to governments in emerging markets that require products that multinationals produce but where direct access to government buyers remains difficult. Our longitudinal case explains how a foreign-owned healthcare multinational cultivated a buyer–seller relationship with difficult-to-access, “barricaded” government buyers in one of the world’s largest emerging markets. In analyzing this relationship, we offer novel analytical tools to illuminate the respective roles of foreign-owned multinationals and key opinion leaders in coaxing government entities in emerging markets to buy innovative but costly products that are manufactured and supplied by foreign multinationals. We theorize how B2G relationships may work in emerging markets based on the role and contribution of key opinion leaders.