Emerging Market Multinationals and Europe: Challenges and Strategies

Full text

BOOK REVIEW
Breinbauer, A.,Brennan, L.,Jäger, J.,Nachbagauer, A. G. M,& Nölke, A.
(eds) (2019). Emerging Market Multinationals and Europe: Challenges and
Strategies. Cham: Springer, p. 279. ISBN: 978-3-030-31293-0.
Reviewed by Hanane Zerwalp
Published online: May 11, 2022
© 2022 The Author(s)
Emerging Market Multinationals and Europe: Challenges and Strategies, edited by Breinbauer
et al., is the fruit of a five year long research project carried out by a group of scholars with
expertise rooted in different disciplines (economics, economic geography, sociology, manage-
ment, and political science). The volume’s main objective is to unveil the future impact of
emerging multinational companies’investments on European countries, using a multidimen-
sional approach. Throughout the book, the focus of the authors was captured mainly by China’s
multinational companies in Europe. However, a few parts of the book have selected Brazilian,
Turkish, and Russian companies as case studies.
The six parts of the volume include approximately three chapters each. Each of the chapters
adopts different methods, case studies, and structures, all while contributing to the book’s
objective. The book offers three main findings as follows. First, the key element to strengthening
the European economy and business is a prudent location policy. Second, a smart public
location policy can lead to the creation of a sustainable and mutually beneficial business location
for foreign investors and host markets. Finally, emerging multinationals’investments must not
only contribute to the creation of long-term jobs and improvement of the host country’s overall
well-being, but they should also generate benefits for the society regionally, nationally, and
on the European level. Furthermore, they must be in line with the objectives of the regional
economic policy of the host country.
The book fills a gap in the literature to provide much needed answers to ease the rising
concerns in several developed countries regarding the impacts of emerging multinational
companies’investments on the advanced economies. In addition, it offers a guide for European
decision-makers and institutions to formulate policies and strategies that would help attract
long-term and stable investments to improve the general well-being of their nations without
negative impacts.
The first part offers an empirical and theoretical overview, the second part addresses the
internal governance and decision making of an emerging multinational, and the third part
focuses on the impact emerging multinationals have on sustainability and the different strategies
these entities use to measure their commitment to their host countries’sustainability goals.
pDoctoral School of International Relations and Political Science, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary.
E-mail: hanane.zerwal@stud.uni-corvinus.hu
Society and Economy 44 (2022) 3, 353–355
DOI: 10.1556/204.2022.00009

Furthermore, the fourth part is dedicated to investigating how this new wave of companies is
changing labor conditions in Europe, while the fifth part explores the different strategies
implemented by emerging companies to expand their businesses in Europe. The sixth part offers
a conclusion summarizing the main findings of the book’s chapters.
Following the introduction and a general overview of emerging multinational companies, the
first chapter by Jonathan Perraton addresses the most recent phase of globalization and the
changes it has caused in global economic activity. In addition, the chapter discusses the role
multinational companies have played in this shift. The second chapter by Andreas Nölke dis-
cusses whether the close ties between emerging countries’institutions and their multinational
companies might cause major problems for European economies. The third chapter by Johannes
Jäger and Elisabeth Springler presents the recent rise of foreign direct investment from emerging
economies’multinationals within a broader historical perspective, in addition to a brief overview
of theories analyzing the cross-border investment and foreign ownership of firms and their
impact on economic development. The fourth chapter by Andreas G. M. Nachbagauer is an
attempt to understand the ability of an emerging multinational company’s regional units to
operate in the long term and exercise a substantial impact on the company’s strategy and
operation by offering insights on both external and internal conditions.
The fifth chapter by Roberta Aguzzoli and Ilona Hunek features an analysis of the power and
control relationship between corporate headquarters of multinational companies and their
regional headquarters located in the EU. The sixth chapter by Ute Heinrichs and Desislava
Dikova is an exploration of the cross-border acquisitions of emerging multinational companies.
It suggests a future research framework that may lead to more successful acquisitions through
helping emerging multinational companies to overcome advanced market barriers. The seventh
chapter by Andreas G. M. Nachbagauer and Barbara Waldhauser offers a definition of sus-
tainability criteria that should be considered while determining the sustainability policies of
multinational companies. The eighth chapter by Andreas Breinbauer, Johannes Leitner, and
Katharina Becker explores the best practices adopted by investment promotion agencies to
formulate successful sustainable investment promotion policies. The ninth chapter by Leo
Hauska investigates how emerging multinational companies from different parts of the world
are implementing the Sustainable Development Goals in their sustainability policies and reports.
The tenth chapter by Nathalie Homlong and Elisabeth Springler looks at the impact of
Chinese multinationals on global labor conditions. Additionally, it discusses the impact on
European economies by focusing on the structure of the current regulatory schemes in place.
The eleventh chapter by Oliver Emons identifies the reasons behind the Chinese takeovers in
Germany, explores whether the behavior of the Chinese investors has changed over the past few
years, and examines if the image of these investors has been impacted by the LEDVANCE or
KUKA cases. The twelfth chapter by Andreas Breinbauer is devoted to understanding the
motives behind the Belt and Road Initiative and investigating its impact on Europe.
The 13th chapter authored by Johannes Jäger provides new empirical findings explaining the
expansion strategies of Latin American multinationals in Europe based on data from Mexico,
Chile, and Brazil as three of the most significant Latin American countries in terms of outward
foreign direct investment. Furthermore, it offers recommendations for strategies to promote
Latin America’s attractiveness to FDI. The 14th chapter by Andreas Breinbauer and Johannes
Leitner identifies the elements that play a significant role in investment projects of multinational
companies and the impact on the business location, focusing on Turkey and Russia. The final
354 Society and Economy 44 (2022) 3, 353–355

chapter by Andreas Breinbauer, Johannes Jäger, and Andreas G. M. Nachbagauer summarizes
the findings of the volume under one main concept called, “the smart location policy”. This
policy is the key to strengthen European economy and business through establishing multiple,
mutually, beneficial, and sustainable business locations attracting investments that would
contribute to the improvement of the overall well-being of the host country and Europe.
This edited volume is a timely and critical piece with multiple commendable features. First,
while the book would have a more significant impact in the hands of experts or decision-makers,
the language used by the authors was simple and accessible even for non-experts. Second, the
ordering of the papers was logical and permits a smooth transition from one chapter to the next.
Third, although the different chapters used different methodologies, they all contributed to the
book’s overall main objective. Fourth, the concluding concept of the book, “the smart location
policy”is present starting from the second chapter, and the reader gradually build an under-
standing of it moving through the chapters. Finally, the book undertook a very complex mission
and managed to provide clear answers. Europe remains undecided on strategies to exploit
opportunities created by investments from emerging markets, while protecting its economy and
population from any negative impact that these newly established businesses might have in the
future.
The editors of the book have succeeded in creating a timely and homogeneous volume;
however, I believe that taking the following elements into consideration would have added to the
quality and value of the book. First, although the authors have employed case studies of Chinese,
Turkish, Russian, and Latin American multinationals, it is obvious that the focus is on the
Chinese investments, which can be explained perhaps due to skepticism in Europe being
directed towards Chinese companies. Nevertheless, looking into the impact of investments
conducted by multinationals from other emerging origins is also important, since they may also
have a significant effect on the European market. Second, tracking the characteristics of the
home markets of the emerging market multinationals would have been a valuable addition to the
volume, which would have also offered a way to group these companies. Consequently, picking
case studies from each category of firms would have given a more complete view of the impact
and behavior of these entities within the EU. Finally, the fourth and fifth chapters of the
book seem to be repetitive and difficult to follow. The fourth paper analyses the structures
and decision making emerging market multinationals based on the cases of two Multilatinas,
while the fifth one investigates the relationship between headquarters and regional HQs in
Brazilian companies. Therefore, the latter could have been incorporated as the last section of
the former.
In summary, Emerging Market Multinationals and Europe: Challenges and Strategies fills
a research gap regarding the impact of emerging multinational companies on the European
market, in a time where the concerns about the presence of these companies are rising. I
recommend this book to anyone with some previous knowledge about international economy
and business.
Open Access. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium for non-commercial purposes, provided the original author and source are credited, a link to the CC
License is provided, and changes –if any –are indicated.
Society and Economy 44 (2022) 3, 353–355 355