Ownership, strategic orientation and internationalization in emerging markets

For firms from emerging economies, market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation are two of the most important strategic orientations to consider when entering the global marketplace. This study explores how, in emerging markets, ownership structure affects these strategic orientations and their effectiveness in facilitating international business success. Our findings, based on survey data from Chinese firms, suggest that ownership structure, specifically ownership concentration and CEO ownership, can lead firms to choose different strategic orientations. Furthermore, we find that entrepreneurial orientation directly promotes a firm's internationalization activities, whereas market orientation has an inverse U-shaped relationship with internationalization activities. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.