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Exploring emerging market multinational enterprises' divestment from emerging markets
While many studies have examined the internationalisation of multinational enterprises (MNEs) into emerging markets, there is comparatively little research on their divestment from these markets. Additionally, most studies on foreign divestment focus on multinational enterprises from developed marke...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
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Graduate School of Business (GSB)
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613730121973760 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Chambers, Hannah |
| author2 | Luiz, John |
| author_browse | Chambers, Hannah Luiz, John |
| author_facet | Luiz, John Chambers, Hannah |
| author_sort | Chambers, Hannah |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | While many studies have examined the internationalisation of multinational enterprises (MNEs) into emerging markets, there is comparatively little research on their divestment from these markets. Additionally, most studies on foreign divestment focus on multinational enterprises from developed markets rather than emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs), leaving a gap in the literature on EMNEs' divestment from emerging markets which this research aimed to explore. This dissertation discusses how and why emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) divest from emerging markets. Specifically, this research explores the antecedents of divestment, focusing on the divestment motives, decisions, and strategies of South African MNEs that operated in Nigeria in order to address the main overarching research question. Consequently, South African MNEs are the primary focus of EMNEs, and Nigeria is the focal emerging market for this research. This research employed a qualitative, inductive, and exploratory approach, utilising multiple case studies of South African MNEs that were operational in Nigeria before subsequently divesting. The research findings of this study were based on semi-structured interviews, with the majority of the interview participants being from the South African MNEs, along with two additional subject matter experts. To obtain the overall research findings from these interviews, the data was analysed through manual thematic coding, without the use of any coding software. Additionally, this research incorporated triangulation with secondary research in order to verify and add depth to the findings from the interviews. This study views the results of the reasons for divestment from three perspectives: host country turbulence and institutional voids leading to divestment, home country's institutional weakness influencing divestment and firm-related challenges influences on divestment. In conjunction with this, it then separately discusses the divestment approaches or strategies adopted. The findings of this study contribute to and have implications for academia, EMNEs, and stakeholders involved in international business operations. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42179 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:40:47.385Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Graduate School of Business (GSB) |
| publisherStr | Graduate School of Business (GSB) |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42179 Exploring emerging market multinational enterprises' divestment from emerging markets Chambers, Hannah Luiz, John Divestment Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises (EMNEs) Emerging Markets South Africa Nigeria Internationalisation While many studies have examined the internationalisation of multinational enterprises (MNEs) into emerging markets, there is comparatively little research on their divestment from these markets. Additionally, most studies on foreign divestment focus on multinational enterprises from developed markets rather than emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs), leaving a gap in the literature on EMNEs' divestment from emerging markets which this research aimed to explore. This dissertation discusses how and why emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) divest from emerging markets. Specifically, this research explores the antecedents of divestment, focusing on the divestment motives, decisions, and strategies of South African MNEs that operated in Nigeria in order to address the main overarching research question. Consequently, South African MNEs are the primary focus of EMNEs, and Nigeria is the focal emerging market for this research. This research employed a qualitative, inductive, and exploratory approach, utilising multiple case studies of South African MNEs that were operational in Nigeria before subsequently divesting. The research findings of this study were based on semi-structured interviews, with the majority of the interview participants being from the South African MNEs, along with two additional subject matter experts. To obtain the overall research findings from these interviews, the data was analysed through manual thematic coding, without the use of any coding software. Additionally, this research incorporated triangulation with secondary research in order to verify and add depth to the findings from the interviews. This study views the results of the reasons for divestment from three perspectives: host country turbulence and institutional voids leading to divestment, home country's institutional weakness influencing divestment and firm-related challenges influences on divestment. In conjunction with this, it then separately discusses the divestment approaches or strategies adopted. The findings of this study contribute to and have implications for academia, EMNEs, and stakeholders involved in international business operations. 2025-11-12T07:24:47Z 2025-11-12T07:24:47Z 2025 2025-11-12T07:21:09Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42179 en eng application/pdf Graduate School of Business (GSB) Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Divestment Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises (EMNEs) Emerging Markets South Africa Nigeria Internationalisation Chambers, Hannah Exploring emerging market multinational enterprises' divestment from emerging markets |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Exploring emerging market multinational enterprises' divestment from emerging markets |
| title_full | Exploring emerging market multinational enterprises' divestment from emerging markets |
| title_fullStr | Exploring emerging market multinational enterprises' divestment from emerging markets |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring emerging market multinational enterprises' divestment from emerging markets |
| title_short | Exploring emerging market multinational enterprises' divestment from emerging markets |
| title_sort | exploring emerging market multinational enterprises divestment from emerging markets |
| topic | Divestment Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises (EMNEs) Emerging Markets South Africa Nigeria Internationalisation |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42179 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT chambershannah exploringemergingmarketmultinationalenterprisesdivestmentfromemergingmarkets |