INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, we examine the final process issue of our operational difficulties framework related to EMNC expansion. After managers of EMNCs overcome the hurdles associated with establishing operations in foreign countries and integrating these operations into the overall corporation, they must attempt to build upon the initial investments by identifying new business opportunities in the local country and the competitive advantages they can use to pursue them. They may also attempt to build upon MNC networks to identify new business opportunities outside the country that can be served from the local operation and identify advantages that can be used to set up new business operations outside the country in coordination with other subsidiaries. By pursuing these activities, EMNCs may be able to consolidate and supplement their initial investments within a country to develop synergies and a stronger overall presence.

As we have seen in previous chapters, there are differences in institutionalized expectations about organizational practices between developing country home markets and developed country host markets, and EMNCs have relatively little experience operating in these markets to guide them in incorporating local practices into their subsidiary operations. While these issues may be present in any MNC, for EMNCs with operations in developed countries, the possibilities for differences in such role expectations and the need to develop abilities to reconcile them are exponentially higher. In this chapter, we review operational difficulties associated with EMNC expansion, focusing particularly on issues related to learning and innovation and expanding EMNC competencies. We begin our exploration with the case of Tata Motors and its efforts to expand geographically as well as into higher-level automobile categories.

OPENING CASE: TATA MOTORS

Tata Motors is an Indian car company with manufacturing subsidiaries in Argentina, South Africa, Thailand, and the United Kingdom and research and development (R&D) operations in South Korea, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The company had revenues of US$38.6 billion and 66,000 employees in 2014. While Tata had initial success in investing overseas, these investments did not significantly improve the company's reputation, and Tata was primarily seen as a manufacturer of low-cost automobiles, the most notable being the Tata Nano launched in 2009. Partly as a way to combat this, Tata Motors acquired the British brands Jaguar and Land Rover from the US automaker Ford Motor Company in 2008.