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1. Introduction
With the multinational enterprises (MNEs) landscape continuing to shift from developed to emerging economies, we are witnessing another transformation: vibrant e-commerce corporations (ECCs) growing alongside classic MNEs. The growth of global e-commerce, along with the widespread adoption of information and communication technologies, has fueled this explosion. In the same vein, the use of online channels has driven the international expansion of retail firms (Tolstoy et al., 2016). In 2015, 22 ECCs were among the top MNEs in terms of foreign sales, up from nine in 2006 (UNCTAD, 2018). Epitomized by technology giants such as Google and Amazon, the list included five ECCs from emerging and transition economies such as China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba.
As this digital revolution continues to gather momentum, emerging market ECCs (EM-ECCs) are beginning to rival their developed country counterparts, particularly in their home markets (Alcácer et al., 2016). The emergence of web and advances in communications systems has bestowed unique opportunities upon companies, irrespective of their size, to reach consumers from around the world (Poon and Swatman, 1999; Powell, 2014).
However, advanced market ECCs (AM-ECCs) continue to dominate and shape global e-commerce. In a recent listing of the world’s top 50 e-retailers, only China and Brazil represented emerging markets (National Retail Federation, 2017). While China boasts some of the world’s biggest ECCs such as Alibaba and Baidu, these companies have not been able to create the large global footprint of their competitors, instead finding themselves limited to their domestic or regional markets. Similarly, ECCs from India have not ventured much outside their country. For example, take the case of two of Amazon’s primary rivals in India: Flipkart (established in 2007) and Snapdeal (established in 2010). Since launching its e-commerce venture in India in 2013, Amazon has seen its market share and web traffic grow exponentially, implying that its growth is going to continue (Trefis Team, 2016). Due in part to the threat of a global entrant such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal decided to focus on India instead of expanding operations internationally, which subsequently may have been a factor allowing Flipkart to be acquired by Wal-Mart (Nassauer and Abrams, 2018).
This dynamic raises a few key questions with regard to why EM-ECCs, compared to AM-ECCs, are content...