A theoretical model of the formation and dissolution of emerging market international marketing alliances

As emerging market international marketing alliances (E-IMAs) are becoming popular as instruments of growth for firms from the developed markets that are attempting to expand into emerging markets, there is a growing need to understand how these E-IMAs are formed, operate, and even get dissolved in the emerging markets. Extant theories on IMAs, although limited, have primarily focused on alliances that are formed and operate in developing markets. However, as the institutional context of emerging markets differs significantly from that of developing markets, these existing theories are not sufficient to explain and predict phenomena related to E-IMAs. Therefore, using data from in-depth interviews with senior executives from 106 companies involved in marketing alliances, this study develops a new theoretical model based on the awareness-motivation-capability framework that can explain and predict phenomena related to E-IMAs. Related propositions are presented for both researchers and practitioners who are interested in studying or developing E-IMAs.