The evolution of emerging economy multinationals

The phenomenon of emerging economy multinational (EMNE) internationalization has stimulated a lively debate among international business scholars. After more than two decades of high-quality scholarly work, this debate continues. The evolution of emerging market economies as well as the geopolitical events of the recent past have provided further boost to the research agenda on EMNEs’ internationalization, keeping the topic at the forefront of international business (IB) research. A call for scholarly articles was issued to expand academic understanding of what’s still emerging about EMNEs. Several high-quality papers were received and reviewed, resulting in 15 papers accepted for publication in the special issue. The present paper introduces the special issue and an overview of the papers published, highlighting how these papers extend our understanding of EMNE internationalization, especially with regard to evolution of their competitive advantages, location choices, and entry modes. In doing so, this paper proposes ways in which scholarship of EMNEs can advance beyond our common understanding of country-specific and firm-specific antecedents of EMNE internationalization. We also examine some recent notable contributions to the literature as well as propose an agenda for future research.