POLI advantages of state-owned multinationals

Abstract

Purpose The authors revisit the traditional OLI paradigm with the objective to allocate politics within the set of internationalization advantages by building on the political strategy literature. The authors outline the specific role of political advantage that facilitates and propels the international expansion of state-owned multinational enterprises (SOMNEs) from emerging markets.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual paper which explains the role of political advantage in the internationalization of SOMNEs. The authors expand the scope of the OLI to capture the impact of firms' home governments' policies and relationships with host countries which are leveraged by SOMNEs in their internationalization.Findings The authors define political advantage as a new type of advantage which depends on and is sourced from external actors. The authors argue that P-advantage is a multifaceted and unstable part of POLI composition, which is contingent on political shifts and may be leveraged by various firms. The authors also assert that political capabilities have limitations in sustaining political advantage, which may be compensated via enhancing the political activity of firms.Originality/valueThe authors conceptualize the POLI-advantages paradigm for the internationalization of SOMNEs by proposing that in addition to the traditional ownership, location, and internalization advantages, firms can capitalize on their political advantage to enter markets where internationalization might have been difficult without their political connections.

A literature review on CEE firms’ internationalization: success measurement, achievement and outcomes

“…Thus, three databases – Scopus, Google Scholar and Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science – were searched to find out whether they had published any other articles or book chapters that could be included into the analysis. As a result, 16 publications (Ciszewska-Mlinarič, 2015; Ciszewska-Mlinarič and Trapczyński, 2019a, 2019b; Ciszewska-Mlinarič et al , 2012; Ciszewska-Mlinarič et al , 2020; Lukason and Vissak, 2016; Lukason et al , 2021; Miranda García et al , 2019; Panibratov, 2016; Panibratov and Klishevich, 2020; Panibratov et al , 2022; Trapczynski, 2016b, Trąpczyński et al , 2016; Vissak, 2022a, 2022b, Wójcik and Ciszewska-Mlinarič, 2020) were added. Thus, in total, 113 publications will be analysed in the following sections.…”

“…For some firms, foreign investors are the most important partners (Wasowska, 2017) as they help to overcome lack of capabilities or resources, and, thus, foreign-owned firms can achieve higher levels of international success (Çela et al , 2022; Ciszewska-Mlinaric et al , 2018; Panibratov and Klishevich, 2020). For some other firms – especially, for those active in Russia – political connections can be helpful for successful foreign expansion (Earl et al , 2022; Panibratov, 2016; Panibratov et al , 2022).…”

“…From other outcomes , revenue growth (Éltető and Udvari, 2019; Panibratov et al , 2022; Srbinoski et al , 2022; Vaivode, 2018), reduced financial risk and higher survival due to earnings from multiple markets (Roolaht, 2017; Steinerowska-Streb et al , 2022; Vissak and Masso, 2020), increased financial stability (Coşkun et al , 2022), high profitability (Barłożewski and Trąpczyński, 2021a; Bulis et al , 2021; Çela et al , 2022; Ciszewska-Mlinarič et al , 2012; Kalotay and Sulstarova, 2010; Lukason and Vissak, 2016; Srbinoski et al , 2022) and constant profitability (growth) during several years were used to characterize successful internationalizers (Vissak, 2013; Vissak and Zhang, 2016). In addition, in some studies, employment growth (Srbinoski et al , 2022; Svetličič et al , 2007; Vissak and Masso, 2020), high productivity (Benkovskis et al , 2020; Brodzicki, 2017; Damijan et al , 2017; Jaklič et al , 2017), improved reputation (Ciszewska-Mlinarič et al , 2020), increased value added (Ciszewska-Mlinarič et al , 2012; Trapczynski, 2016b), gaining access to new technologies via successful investments (Götz and Jankowska, 2019) and increased innovativeness (Ermolaeva et al , 2018) and competitiveness (Trąpczyński et al , 2016) were mentioned.…”

The influence of home-country resources and state ownership on subsidiary’s performance: a multilevel perspective

“…Consequently, proponents of the resource-based view argue that government provides unique resources inherent to SOEs (Chan and Pattnaik, 2021; Panicker et al , 2022; Wang et al , 2012a). Accordingly, the government functions as a distinctive shareholder, providing benefits to SOEs, such as more access to resources (Benito et al , 2016; Huang et al , 2022), financial support (Finchelstein et al , 2022; Tan et al , 2014) and political ties facilitating access to location advantage and decision of investment (Panibratov et al , 2022).…”

“…This perspective suggests that SOEs serve as significant repositories of resources facilitating global expansion (Wang et al , 2012a; Panibratov et al , 2022; Ren et al , 2019). Specifically, the ownership structure of SOEs, varying in degrees, is likely to impact the company’s investments in the host country (Cuervo-Cazurra et al , 2014).…”