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Political relations are of particular importance for business affairs in emerging markets,
where the government traditionally plays a significant rôle.
Therefore, EMNEs invest in political resources, not only to safeguard their interests via
bargaining with the host countries' authorities, but also to reap home government support
for their outward investments.
Home governments in emerging markets use various tools to encourage and promote
outward OFDI, such as insurance programs, special loans and guarantees,
the elimination of double taxation, and the relaxation of restrictions on inbound FDI.
Government also provides domestic multinationals with information services
indicating business opportunities abroad.
This is supported by the evidence of both state-owned and private Russian MNEs in various sectors.
For example, in resource-based sectors (such as Rosatom and Rosneft),
in banking (Sberbank and VTB), in defense (Sukhoi and Rosoboronexport),
or in technology-intensive sectors (with the examples of Kaspersky and Yandex).
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The government also intervenes in the internationalization process
of emerging multinationals via lobbyism.
EMNEs are rich and powerful entities in their home markets,
and thus have resources and linkages to influence government decisions.
Russian Gazprom is an illustrative example of a government-supported company in the IB arena.
In the year 2006, the European Commission announced a plan to divide up the assets
of companies that generate, transmit, and distribute natural gas.
This plan was unfavorable for Gazprom.
Then in the year 2007, the Russian President Vladimir Putin met with
the then President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, and after this meeting France announced
its protest against the European Commission plan.
This protest was also supported by Gaz de France, the major partner of Gazprom in the French market.
In the end, the European Commission's plan was rejected.
