Abstract/Summary

Socio-cultural, economic, political and institutional differences between countries increase uncertainty and complexity in today’s highly competitive international business environment. Moreover, the “West-Leads-East” to “West-Meets-East” shift in the global economy requires firms in both advanced economies and emerging markets to seek sustainable solutions by collaborating across geographical boundaries. Such novel collaborative partnerships may help build a stable, resilient and sustainable world economy by leveraging the resources and capabilities of firms from both advanced and emerging economies. This paper has three general objectives. First, we seek to show that context has been a long-standing issue in management, organization and international business research and provide an overview of the puzzles that informed and motivated this special issue. Second, we highlight the key insights and contributions of the papers included in this special issue by reviewing their theoretical underpinnings, methodological approaches and empirical findings. Finally, we outline a future research agenda on emerging market firms venturing into advanced economies that can help advance international business and management studies.