Location determinants for emerging market firms

Purpose – The paper aims to understand which location determinants are relevant in a subsidiary location decision under the interaction influence of an emerging‐market firm's (EMF) resource and internationalization motives. Design/methodology/approach – The paper prepares a typology of an EMF's resources which are different from those of a developed‐country firm. It proceeds to argue which internationalization motives are likely to work for an EMF endowed with a specific resource. Finally, the paper posits the impact of resource and internationalization motives on the relevance of some location determinants over others in an EMF's location decision matrix. Findings – The conceptual framework proposes a relationship between EMF resources, internationalization motives and location determinants and prioritizes some location determinant(s) over others for various combinations of EMF resource and internationalization motives. Research limitations/implications – The paper contributes to the literature by proposing a unique typology of EMF resources. The overall framework informs the scholars about the importance of idiosyncratic resources as the basis of differential location decisions. Practical implications – This article presents a guiding framework for multinational managers to assess optimum location decisions on the basis of idiosyncratic firm resources and internationalization motives. Originality/value – The paper fills a scholarly gap by proposing a framework that relates firm resources and internationalization motives to location determinants. In the process, the paper also proposes a resource typology for resources unique to EMFs.