Emerging market multinationals’ liability of outsidership

Abstract

This study investigated how the liability of outsidership affects emerging-market multinationals. We argue that besides lack of access to local networks, lack of access to leadership positions in global value chain networks is another possible source of the liability of outsidership, and it affects emerging market firms more than multinationals from developed countries. Accordingly, multinationals from emerging markets are more likely than those from developed countries to exit from a foreign market in which they had invested. Allying with technology partners and developed-country non-technology partners could help EMNEs overcome the LOO. Those findings are based on a study of mobile money services provided by multinationals from both emerging markets and developed countries during the period 2001–2022.