“Home Base” and the Brand Globalization Strategies of Emerging Market Multinationals

Abstract

This chapter examines the impact of the “home base” of Emerging Market Multinationals (EMMNEs) on their global branding strategy. While EMMNEs are perceived as lacking experience and competence in global branding, especially when competing in Western developed markets, they achieve non-traditional competitive advantages by levering knowledge and experience gained from their home base (i.e. their home country market), other institutionally similar emerging markets, and diaspora communities in foreign countries. Informed by three theoretical perspectives—dynamic capability, institutional proximity, and social embeddedness—the authors develop a conceptual model to explain these effects and illustrate their propositions with a number of case studies.