RT journal article
T1 Escaping institutional constraints: how environmental proactivity shapes the environmental international diversification of emerging market firms?
A1 Sabah, Rasha
A1 Ahmadova, Gozal
A1 Aguilera Caracuel, Javier
A1 Guerrero Villegas, Jaime
A2 Organización de Empresas
K1 Environmental proactivity
K1 Environmental international diversification
K1 Home country corruption
K1 Home country innovation
K1 Institutional theory
K1 Escape theory
AB In the context of emerging market firms, this paper considers the relationship between their environmental international diversification and environmental proactivity, incorporating the influence of home country institutional constraints, with particular regard to the moderating roles of home country corruption and innovation. The study was conducted using a panel dataset obtained from the LSEG Workspace database to analyse the published results of 370 firms across ten business sectors for the period 2012–2022. The main findings provide evidence of a significant relationship between firms’ environmental proactivity and their international expansion. The findings indicate that environmental proactivity serves as a critical legitimacy building mechanism for firms seeking to escape corrupt home-country institutions, thereby strengthening its effect on environmental international diversification. In contrast, strong domestic innovation systems reduce the need for such legitimacy driven internationalisation, weakening the relationship between environmental proactivity and environmental international diversification. The present study contributes to the international business literature by revealing how institutional factors in emerging markets influence the relationship between environmental proactivity and environmental international diversification. It also offers valuable insights for policymakers and business leaders wishing to enhance emerging market firms’ global market presence through policies focused on environmental proactivity.
PB Springer Nature
SN 2147-4281
YR 2026
FD 2026-05-02
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/39977
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/39977
LA eng
NO Funding for open access publishing: Universidad de Granada/CBUA. This research work is funded by the R&D&i Project Ref. TED2021-130960A-I00, funded by the Strategic Projects Oriented towards the Ecological Transition and the Digital Transition 2021 (Spanish Research Agency, NextGeneration EU), and by the R&D&i Project Ref. C-SEJ-128-UGR23, co-funded by the Regional Ministry of University, Research and Innovation and by the European Union under the Andalusia ERDF Program 02021–2027. This research has also been partially funded by the Excellence Unit “Advanced Research in Economics and Business” of the University of Granada Ref. UCE2023-A-2024-03 and by the Unit of Excellence of the University Campus of Melilla (University of Granada, Spain). Ref. UCE-PP2024-02. This research also received funding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada/CBUA. We thank Instituto Europeo de Sostenibilidad en Gestión (iESG) and members of ISDE research group (SEJ-481) for their support and insightful suggestions to enhance the scientific quality and rigour of this research.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 06-nov-2026