Department of International Trade, Faculty of Business Administration, Ling Tung University, #1 Ling Tung Rd., Taichung City 408, Taiwan. E-mail: juichuan@mail.ltu.edu.tw

Received 7 February 2006; Revised 28 September 2006; Accepted 31 October 2006.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide an integrated framework that conceptualizes multifaceted antecedents pertaining to international expansion of emerging-market businesses in relation to firm performance. This paper develops multiple-item measures of multiple dimensions to clarify how internationalization path, expansion speed, product diversification and geographic scope affect emerging-market multinational enterprise (MNE) performance in a sample of 115 Asia-Pacific MNEs over the period 1998–2002. The results show that the relationship between internationalization and firm performance is non-linear. The results also indicate that moderate product diversification, foreign expansion speed and geographic scope can increase emerging-market MNE capacities to exploit different market opportunities when they engage in foreign activity. By contrast, firm performance will turn negative if MNEs heavily expand their product range and geographic scope.