Rethinking the Institutional Contexts of Emerging Markets Through Metaphor Analysis

Farzad H. Alvi ()
Additional contact information
Farzad H. Alvi: Tecnológico de Monterrey

Management International Review, 2012, vol. 52, issue 4, No 2, 519-539

Abstract: Abstract Recent literature recommends greater analysis of institutional contexts in order to better adapt strategies in emerging market economies. This paper explores cognitive challenges in understanding institutional contexts, and reveals an outdated vernacular around emerging markets. Unwittingly, we may be crafting strategies based on how we would like emerging markets to be, rather than on how emerging markets actually are. Institutional context is investigated through metaphor analysis. As conceptual constructions that link the abstract to the concrete, metaphors can yield rich insights when analyzed. The metaphor analysis performed finds powerful cognitive simplifications and preconceptions of emerging markets. Eliciting novel metaphors around the labels ‘emerging markets’, ‘developing countries’, and ‘third world’ uncovers a fragmented rather than holistic view of institutional context. Strategies unresponsive to emerging markets may flow from a fragmented view of institutional context. In terms of theory, the use of metaphor analysis highlights the importance of considering subjective and even messy elements of institutional context. Prevailing discussions in the international business literature often focus on streamlined, objective measures of institutional context. This paper emphasizes that a complex process of institutionalization is being observed rather than a steady state of objective outcomes.

Keywords: Emerging markets; Developing countries; Third world; Strategy; Labels; Institutional context; Metaphor analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11575-011-0113-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:manint:v:52:y:2012:i:4:d:10.1007_s11575-011-0113-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11575

DOI: 10.1007/s11575-011-0113-0

Access Statistics for this article

Management International Review is currently edited by Michael-Jörg Oesterle and Joachim Wolf

More articles in Management International Review from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().