Africa is an increasingly important business context, yet we still know very little about it. We review the challenges and opportunities that firms in Africa face and propose that these can serve as the basis for extending current theories and models of the firm. We do so by challenging some of...

We analyze the influence of a regional economic integration agreement (REIA) on a firm's investments in research and development (R&D). A country's entry into a REIA creates two competing influences on the firm's R&D investments. On the one hand, increased competition in product markets after...

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the crucial role of vaccines in public health management and economic recovery. Its worldwide impact has raised national security concerns and implications on health policies, particularly on Asia Pacific countries' readiness to cope...

We analyze the impact of structural reform on firm exports. We argue that structural reform generates new opportunities and reduces transaction costs, inducing firms to improve their efficiency and competitiveness to international levels and, therefore, helps them to export. However, we propose...

We extend agency theory to propose that structural reform positively impacts firm profitability in developing countries because the improvements in external monitoring that accompany structural reform decrease the agency costs faced by firms. However, we also argue that not all firms benefit...

The paper analyzes the internationalization process of service firms. The analysis of the internationalization of Banco Santander illustrates three arguments. First, the idea that the distance between home and host country determines the selection of countries where to invest varies with the...

Multinational firms from Latin America, or Multilatinas, have recently emerged among the largest multinational firms in the World. This paper describes the phenomenon and argues that the emergence of Multilatinas is a consequence of the process of economic liberalization of the decade of the...

We extend the literature on the difficulties of internationalization by discussing their types and specific consequences associated with each type. The types of difficulties can be separated into three main groups based on their cause and specificity: the inabilities to transfer advantage and to...

This paper examines the impact of corruption on foreign direct investment (FDI). It argues that corruption results not only in a reduction in FDI, but also in a change in the composition of country of origin of FDI. It presents two key findings. First, corruption results in relatively lower FDI...

We study the causes of the difficulties faced by firms when they internationalize in search of new markets. We build on the resource-based theory to argue that the difficulties in internationalization can be separated into three main sets based on their relationship to advantage: loss of an...