Third-World Copycats to Emerging Multinationals: Institutional Changes and Organizational Transformation in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

Date

2009

Authors

Chittoor, Raveendra
Sarkar, M.B.
Ray, Sougata
Aulakh, Preet S.

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Organization Science

Abstract

This article investigates how Indian pharmaceutical firms, facing discontinuous institutional changes in their domestic environment due to economic liberalization and intellectual property reforms, have undertaken organizational transformation. Internationalization of resources and product markets constitutes an important component of organizational transformation for local firms in emerging economies. Using longitudinal data on 206 Indian pharmaceutical firms from 1995–2004, we find that firms’ access to international technological and financial resources enables product market internationalization. Furthermore, we theorize and find support for our predictions that the association between international resources and markets is conditioned by time and business group affiliation, and product market internationalization affects financial performance. Several implications thus emerge for theory and practice associated with the sources of competitiveness in emerging economy firms and their transformation into globally competitive multinational firms.

Description

Keywords

emerging multinationals, economic liberalization, business groups, resource internationalization, emerging economies, pharmaceutical industry, globalization, India

Citation

Chittoor, R., et al. (2009). Third-World Copycats to Emerging Multinationals: Institutional Changes and Organizational Transformation in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry, Organization Science, 20(1), 187-205. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1080.0377.