Resources

Osei, Barnard, Derban, and Essuman show that giving rural Ghanaians free, mobile-enabled bank accounts and financial literacy training did not meaningfully increase account use. In a field experiment with 142 participants, only 2 percent used their accounts, typically when required to receive payments. The study found that usage depended less on access or knowledge, and more on income stability and concrete financial needs. These results highlight the limits of standalone literacy interventions and underscore the importance of linking financial inclusion strategies to broader efforts that raise incomes and enable purposeful transactions. For financial tools to work, the conditions for their use must exist.

Farhad Forbes is Co-Chairman of Forbes Marshall, a privately held engineering company approaching its 80th anniversary, and served two terms as global chair of the Family Business Network International, representing 4,000 family companies across 65 countries. This note is based on Forbes' keynote at CEM's Family Business Summit in October 2025. His message: Family businesses face a dual mandate: managing the business itself while managing the family's relationship to that business. Mastering both determines whether families build lasting enterprises or become cautionary tales.

Li, Cuypers, Ertug, Bapuji, and Liu reveal that not all political connections affect environmental outcomes equally. Using data from 6,758 private Chinese firms, the study finds that ties to national and provincial officials tend to reduce pollution, while ties to local officials often increase it, reflecting different governmental priorities. The authors show how owner social class and shifts in policy attention further shape these effects. Their findings underscore the need for coordination across government levels and strategic engagement by firms to ensure political ties promote, rather than undermine, sustainability and industrial accountability in emerging markets.

Nason, Vedula, Bothello, Bacq, and Charman explore how entrepreneurs in South Africa's informal economy balance the need to be seen with the risk of exposure. Through fieldwork in Cape Town's Delft township, they introduce the concept of “selective visibility,” showing that entrepreneurs reveal themselves strategically to customers or authorities based on social embeddedness. Older, locally rooted business owners often remain discreet, while younger or migrant entrepreneurs seek community visibility for legitimacy. The study highlights visibility as a calibrated practice rather than a binary choice and calls for policies that de-risk gradual formalization, promote trust, and support context-sensitive growth for informal firms.

Frank D'Souza co-founded Cognizant in 1994 and served as its CEO from 2007 to 2019, building it into a Fortune 200 information technology services giant. He is currently co-founder and Managing Partner of Recognize, a private equity fund focused on technology services. This note is based on D'Souza fireside chat with CEM Director Ravi Ramamurti in October 2025 as part of the Center's Vivek & Vandana Sharma India Lecture Series. D'Souza's topic was “Can India compete in AI and Related Technologies?”. His core message: AI will disrupt Indian IT companies profoundly, but out of the “creative destruction” that follows could emerge Indian companies (existing and new) that not only survive but thrive… provided they understand where and how to compete.

Dau, Moore, Alfonzo Cordero, and Cervantes Zepeda explore how the balance between formal and informal institutions shapes entrepreneurial ecosystems in developing economies. Opening borders doesn't automatically transform entrepreneurship—trade liberalization can coexist with small scale and informal ventures when domestic policies misalign with local realities. Drawing on Ecuador as a case study, the analysis reveals how disconnects between national trade policy and local business support programs constrain entrepreneurial transformation. Sustainable, opportunity-driven entrepreneurship in emerging markets requires coordinated strategies that align trade exposure with targeted ecosystem strengthening, particularly in finance and capability building.

Sanctions are a common foreign policy tool, but succeed fully in less than 10% of cases. Examining the case of Myanmar after the 2021 coup, Thein, Grosman, Sosnovskikh, and Klarin show that multinational companies' exits are often driven by informal stakeholder pressures rather than legal mandates. While intended to uphold human rights, hasty exits can worsen humanitarian conditions and even strengthen regime-linked actors. To address this, the authors propose a “responsible exit” framework emphasizing due diligence, transparency, and worker protection. For policymakers, the study highlights the indirect and uneven impacts of sanctions, urging more coordinated design and clearer guidance to prevent harm to local populations.

The Spring 2025 issue of Insights @ Center for Emerging Markets examines how multinational corporations engage with local institutions in emerging markets—where growth potential is high but so are the risks. Drawing on research from Northeastern University faculty and international scholars, we examine how companies can transform challenges into opportunities for responsible growth and competitive advantage.

When multinational companies from advanced economies set up operations in emerging markets, they often bring with them higher environmental standards, more efficient technologies, and robust sustainability practices. These aren't just internal improvements—they can create ripple effects throughout the local business ecosystem. For local firms, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this presents a valuable opportunity to learn, adapt, and upgrade their own environmental practices.

Emerging markets offer multinational corporations high growth potential, but these opportunities are frequently beset by challenges such as bribery and other forms of corruption. Although corruption deters foreign investment, Negash Haile Dedho, René Belderbos, and Alvaro Cuervo Cazurra found that the way a company responds to these challenges hinges significantly on its home country experience, creating a divide between “dirty hands” and “clean hands” companies.