| Although a growing number of studies have explored corporate diversification strategies in emerging economies, their focus has been on product diversification. Accordingly, little is known about emerging economy firms' international diversification even though their international expansion has grown significantly over the past decades. The purpose of this dissertation, composed of three essays, is thus to advance theory by exploring emerging economy firms' international diversification using a sample of publicly traded manufacturing firms in South Korea.;In the second chapter, the influence of emerging economy firms' resources and organizational characteristics on their choice of location is examined by building on institutional economics. This study shows that emerging economy firms show a differential preference for the choice of location between emerging and developed economies, depending on their resources and organizational characteristics. More specifically, emerging economy firms that possess higher levels of technological assets are more likely to expand into developed economies than into other emerging economies. In addition, emerging economy firms with higher levels of product diversification are less likely to expand into developed economies than into other emerging economies.;In the third chapter, a co-evolutionary perspective is advanced to understand the survival of foreign subsidiaries from an emerging economy. This study tests the proposition that environmental selection pressures, subsidiary adaptation, and subsidiary demography contribute to the survival of these foreign subsidiaries. Supportive evidence is found for the proposition by examining the survival of 1,244 foreign subsidiaries of 226 firms from an advanced emerging economy, South Korea, during the 1993-2003 period.;In the first chapter, the relationship between ownership structures and emerging economy firms' international diversification is investigated in order to understand principal-principal agency problems (typically between powerful family owners and minority shareholders). Using data on 381 publicly traded manufacturing firms in South Korea during the 1998-2003 period, this study finds that principal-principal agency problems in emerging economies may not be as prevalent as widely believed. This study has important implications for the boundary conditions of principal-principal agency theory. |
