Effect of Business Group Affiliation on Firm Internationalization: The Case of India Under Reforms

The authors investigate how diversified business groups influence the structural reform-firm strategy relations given its effect on strategic choice and its implementation in a large emerging economy: India. By integrating business group, industrial organization, and international business literature, the authors predict considerable differences in the exporting behavior of business group-affiliated firms on the basis of their market competitiveness and governance dynamics. The authors test their predictions empirically with longitudinal data of 6,119 Indian firms over a 21-year period starting from 1991-1992 to 2011-2012 and find support for most of the hypotheses. These findings suggest that knowledge of the heterogeneity within business groups are essential for understanding the response of business group affiliates in light of the progression of reform process in India. This study thus contributes to a more complete conceptual understanding of the strategic responses of promarket reforms of business group affiliates in emerging economies.