Country of origin institutional factors and internationalization of multinational companies in emerging markets: a review and future research agenda

Abstract

Different countries have different institutional levels due to the evolution and complexity of institutions. Although there is a lot of research available, the analysis of how institutional factors influence the internationalization process is disconnected, so this article has three main objectives: (1) to map the field and identify the main research streams and their conclusions; (2) propose an integrative framework to analyze the institutional factors driving the internationalization process of companies; and (3) develop a future research agenda to identify opportunities and trends for future studies. For this, an integrative literature review was developed, with 33 articles in the sample. These articles were divided into four lines of research: developed countries, developing countries, regional level, and small and medium enterprises. Government support was the only common factor among these four categories identified as motivators for internationalization.