13 - Capabilities of Mexican Exporters and Multinational Corporations

Summary

Firms from different countries face different challenges to growth and development, with firms in emerging markets generally being at a disadvantage compared to developed countries’ firms. Despite this, some emerging market firms have started expanding to other countries, becoming progressively more established. This chapter will present the case of seven Mexican firms that have undergone an internationalization process and have become multinational corporations and exporters. To analyze this, the study focused on the capabilities each firm had that provided an advantage locally and globally, and whether these capabilities were different for each market. In the comparison, it was discovered that the most common and relevant capabilities for these firms were understanding local customer needs, corporate brand and reputation, and relationship capabilities.