International business scholarship suggests that inward FDI (IFDI) may elicit a wide variety of strategic response from host country firms. While few studies have examined emerging market firms’ outward FDI (OFDI) strategy as a response to IFDI by foreign MNCs, no study has examined if and how family firms—a common occurrence in emerging markets—initiate similar response. Drawing on three streams of literature (competitive dynamics of emerging market firms, institutional development, and family firms), this study empirically examines a sample of Indian family firms over a six-year time-period. Results suggest that family firms increase their existing OFDI in response to IFDI announcements by foreign MNCs. Results also demonstrate that the OFDI-growth response varies across firms and is shaped by heterogeneity in management type (professional/family-based), extent of foreign institutional ownership (high/low), and family CEO’s international experience (possessed/not possessed). These findings are new to the literature. The study concludes by discussing the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings, and highlighting fertile avenues of future research.

国际商务奖学金表明，外来直接投资（IFDI）可能会引起东道国公司的多种战略反应。尽管很少有研究检查新兴市场公司的对外FDI（OFDI）策略作为外国跨国公司对IFDI的反应，但没有研究研究过家族企业是否以及如何发起类似的反应（在新兴市场中很常见）。基于三类文献（新兴市场公司，机构发展和家族企业的竞争动态），本研究以经验方式考察了六年期间印度家族企业的样本。结果表明，家族企业增加了现有的对外直接投资，以应对外国跨国公司宣布的对外直接投资。结果还表明，外国直接投资的增长响应因公司而异，并由管理类型（基于专业/家族的），外国机构所有权的程度（高/低）和家族首席执行官的国际经验（拥有/不拥有）的异质性决定。 。这些发现对文献来说是新的。本研究通过讨论研究结果的理论和管理意义，并着重强调未来研究的肥沃途径，得出结论。