Explaining the performance of South African firms

What is it about?

We explore the characteristics of the 250 largest publicly-traded South African firms which enable them to compete successfully. Factors that contribute to performance include: company size(+),brand value(+), company age (+), international sales(+), and family ownership(-). We conclude that existing theories do indeed serve in this context, but that they need to be adjusted for the different institutional environments in emerging markets. The literature that has developed on emerging market companies competing internationally fails to recognize that most of the features identified exist for all companies in a given country – so they do not explain domestic performance.

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