ABSTRACT
The second chapter explores the existing body of knowledge with regard to academic approaches to understanding and explaining transnational enterprise and international flows of direct investment, with a particular focus on the emerging economies and some of the institutional factors which influence transnational business dynamics and outcomes. Upon this academic platform, the chapter builds an ‘institutional perspective approach’, based on a definition of ‘institutions’ which looks at both formal and informal aspects. A particular emphasis is placed on the business strategies that firms adopt, and occasionally adapt, to help them navigate the formal (and to a lesser extent informal) institutional environments within which their business practices are situated. This discussion culminates in the development and elaboration of a ‘three-dimensional institutional model’, which is the principal theoretical contribution of this book. The model is initially presented as the theoretical framework upon which the research investigation is based, and is subsequently tested for robustness against the empirical case study material which is presented in Chapter Three.
