When Davids start becoming Goliaths: unique capabilities of emerging-market multinational enterprises and how they foster growth in developed markets?

Growth of emerging-market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) in developed markets (DMs) leads to two questions: What are the unique capabilities of these firms? And how do these capabilities foster growth in DMs? Drawing upon resource-based theory (RBT) and the dynamic capabilities view (DCV), I offer an evolutionary framework illustrating how pre-liberalisation asymmetries between EMNEs and developed-market multinational enterprises (DMNEs) have led to unique EMNE capabilities that impel growth in DMs. The typology offered here offers frugal-innovation, political, and market-sensing as unique EMNE operational capabilities. These operational capabilities combine with post-liberalisation, dynamic capabilities: relational-learning and acquisitions capabilities to underpin three sets of strategic choices. The theoretical framework offered here has implications for our understanding of EMNE-specific capabilities and prediction of their growth strategies in DMs.