Strategies for challenger firms from emerging economies in the era of open innovation

The literature has described how challenger firms from emerging economies first develop resources and capabilities by serving domestic markets, and then leverage their domestic strengths to compete in global markets. But in our era of open innovation, there are multiple paths to participation in global markets. In this paper, I identify the explore-exploit continuum as a dimension along which the strategies of high-growth firms from emerging economies will vary, and identify two specialist strategies for challenger firms, both of which involve early internationalisation. Exploration specialists are highly innovative firms that leverage unique capabilities to internationalise early. Exploitation specialists leverage low cost inputs to participate in international supply chains on the basis of superior efficiencies. The institutional context will influence the range of strategies that are likely to be successfully deployed, and policy makers need to ensure that regulations and business support programs support a range of firm strategies.