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THE BUSINESS Doing Business in Emerging Economics Collection

GONCALVES • ALVES • ARCOT


EXPERT PRESS
DIGITAL LIBRARIES Markets Philip J. Romero and Jeffrey A. Edwards, Editors

EBOOKS FOR
Roadmap for Success
BUSINESS STUDENTS Marcus Goncalves • José Alves
Curriculum-oriented, born- • Rajabahadur V. Arcot

Doing
digital books for advanced
business students, written This book provides a good review of the challenges fac-
by academic thought ing business in the emerging markets and initiates
leaders who translate real-

Business in
the discussion of the roadmap necessary for success. I
world business experience
found it thought-provoking and recommend it to anyone
into course readings and
reference materials for with a desire to take their business from local to global.

Emerging
students expecting to tackle —Jayshree Pandya, Founder Risk Group LLC (http://
management and leadership www.riskgroupllc.com) and ­author of the book, The
challenges during their Global Age: NGIOA @ Risk
professional careers.

Markets
This book provides a complete review about political
POLICIES BUILT and economic impacts in developing business abroad.
BY LIBRARIANS
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DOING BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS


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and printing Santa Catarina, Brazil
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treatments of important
business issues to every ment at the Faculty of Business, Government,
student and faculty member. and Social Work of the U
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Rajabahadur V. Arcot is an Independent Industry


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ISBN: 978-1-63157-017-9
Doing Business in
Emerging Markets
Doing Business in
Emerging Markets
Roadmap for Success

Marcus Goncalves, José Alves,


and Rajabahadur V. Arcot
Doing Business in Emerging Markets: Roadmap for Success
Copyright © Business Expert Press, LLC, 2015.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other
except for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior
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First published in 2015 by


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Printed in the United States of America.


To my forever-beautiful wife, Carla, and my son Samir,
both living here on earth, and to my children
Andrea and Joshua, who are now living in Heaven.

To God be the glory!

Marcus Goncalves
Summer 2014

I would like to dedicate to my loving parents


Venkataraman V. Arcot and Tarabai V. Arcot,
now living in Heaven.

Rajabahadur V. Arcot
Abstract
Doing Business in Emerging Markets reflects the challenges and oppor-
tunities facing international businesses and professionals when operating
in emerging markets, particularly in the wake of the financial crisis of
2008. This book is filled with valuable information and real-world facts
and examples from across the globe. It covers all the key topics on con-
ducting business in emerging markets, addressing important aspects of
entering a new market, as well as post-entry issues and strategies, such
as dealing with corruption, the application of the United States Foreign
Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA), international market research and more,
demonstrating how the emerging market context challenges traditional
international business theories and even best practices.
Marcus Goncalves, Fall 2014.

Keywords
emerging markets, FCPA, global corruption, global crime, international
business, international marketing research
Contents
Acknowledgments�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������xi

Chapter 1 Entering an Emerging Market������������������������������������������1


Chapter 2 The Importance of Market Research
and Business Intelligence �����������������������������������������������21
Chapter 3 Coping With Political and Economic Risks��������������������37
Chapter 4 FCPA: Dealing With Corruption and Crime������������������67
Chapter 5 Coping With the Global and Emerging Market Crisis����95

About the Authors�������������������������������������������������������������������������������123


Advance Quotes for Doing Business in Emerging Markets����������������������125
Notes�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������127
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������131
Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������149
Acknowledgments
There were many people who helped us during the process of writing this
book. It would be impossible to keep track of them all. Therefore, to all
that we have forgotten to list, please don’t hold it against us!
We would like to thank Dr. Patrick Barron, professor at the Graduate
School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and of
Austrian economics at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City for his contri-
butions on the issue of currency wars in chapter 5. Many thanks also to
ambassador M.K. Bhadrakumar, former diplomat in the Indian Foreign
Service with assignments in the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka,
Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, and Turkey for his
valuable insights and contributions to foreign policy issues in the MENA
region.
CHAPTER 1

Entering an Emerging
Market
Overview
Entering an emerging market is not easy. In our experience in teaching
this topic, consulting for several multinational corporations around the
world, and being a practitioner ourselves, we find that emerging markets
are tough to enter. Government interference, backward infrastructure,
and a lack of skilled workers require a lot of patience, perseverance, and
specialized assistance. Opportunities in the emerging markets come with
their own set of challenges. For instance, often lack of education of the
workforce translates into thwarted growth being curbed by a lack of a
skilled workforce. Other challenges that arise are legal frameworks with
regard to trade policies, which may be absent or underdeveloped, or ten-
dencies for political paternalism or blatant interferences, which we see in
India and Latin America.
Compare the above to the advanced economies, which, despite the
fact that growth has been flat to negative since 2008, continues to super-
sede emerging markets. When looking at the EU, the 27-member coun-
tries allow for labor mobility and a free flow of goods without tariff or
nontariff restrictions. Furthermore, the workers in many EU countries are
highly educated and have conferred great reputations for their economies.
“German engineering” is well known around the world for its high level
of quality, the same cannot be said for Indian or Russian engineering.
India has been making progress in opening its economy, but its polit-
ical response to a much-needed foreign investment is troubling. Large
foreign retailers such as IKEA are willing to employ thousands of Indi-
ans, but politicians continue to fret about mom-and-pop stores and other
small businesses that may be displaced. In 2012, politicians forbade IKEA
from selling half its product line in India. In 2012, the deputy chief
2 DOING BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS

minister for Punjab went as far as to declare that there was no need for
foreign-owned discount retail chains because there are already a multitude
of stores selling cheap goods.1
Foreign investors become confused and frustrated with these types of
patriarchal decisions such as these. Although many nations have transi-
tioned from autocratic rule to democracies with free markets, some con-
tinue to dabble in market interference. Take Argentina as an example,
where President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, to prevent a run on the
peso by Argentines, has put strict currency controls in place. It is not
wonder that in an annual World Bank study titled Doing Business (2013),
New Zealand, Singapore, and Hong Kong ranked first, second, and third
place respectively in protecting investors, while Argentina ranks 98.2
Emerging markets such as India and China have huge and growing
populations and thus demand rapid growth rate if they are to make any
headway in social development. If India’s economic growth falls below six
percent the nation would be in crisis, whereas in most advanced econo-
mies, such as the United States, if the economy grew at that rate it would
risk overheating.
India can barely keep up with educating its rising populations. It
needs as many as 1,000 new universities and 35,000 new colleges if it
is to achieve its stated goal of raising post-secondary enrollment from
12 percent today to 30 percent by 2020. Meanwhile, Mexico is turning
out more engineers and engineering technicians a year than Germany,
and it must scramble to ensure they all get jobs. To fail would be to spawn
social unrest.
Another key factor when considering entering emerging markets is
the distance between emerging markets, which can hamper trade. One
study found that a 10 percent increase in distance between north-to-
north traders reduces trade by 10 percent; the same distance between
south-to-south traders reduces trade by 17 percent.3
An improved policy would make an important difference in resolv-
ing such problems but emerging market have yet to demonstrate serious
desires for true bilateral cooperation. Although the ASEAN nations have
a trade agreement, it has yet to yield much economic improvement, as
the bloc has yet to turn their loose organization into a trading block, even
though economic integration has been touted as a central pillar.
Entering an Emerging Market 3

Public administration in emerging markets has much to be desired.


The 2013 Doing Business4 study by the World Bank ranks Brazil, Russia,
India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) as 116th, 92nd, 134th, 96th,
and 41th respectively out of 189 countries.
Infrastructure remains a significant problem in most emerging mar-
kets. China continues to invest heavily in roads, railways, and ports, but
elsewhere the progress is weak. India has called for $1 trillion in infra-
structure modernization but it lacks the funds to do so independently
and its politicians remain suspicious of external sources of capital. The
situation is no different in Latin America, in fact, it is arguably worse, as
80 percent of Latin Americans live in cities, compared to fewer than half
of Asians. The need for modern urban infrastructure is urgent. Brazil, for
instance, wants to improve its infrastructure, which is a bottleneck for
the outflow of many of its export products, but it is moving glacially. It
has been so slow that Sao Paulo’s underground rapid transit system covers
only one-tenth of the distance of the one in Seoul, South Korea.*
Does all this mean that foreign investors should avoid trading with or
investing in emerging markets? On the contrary, however, any organized
program of opening up to emerging markets must include specialized
expertise, on-the-ground knowledge, local partnerships, and, most of all,
patience.

Why Multinationals Fail in Emerging Markets


Pacek and Thorniley5 identified an exhaustive range of factors contribut-
ing to the failure of companies from advanced economies into emerging
markets. These factors may be divided into external and internal factors
and almost all are related to strategic and leadership issues:

• Leaders fail to consider emerging markets as an integral part


of strategy and acknowledge that such markets need to be
approached with a distinct set of criteria for judging progress
and success.

* Ibidem.
4 DOING BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS

• Top leaders fail to commit sufficient resources to get busi-


nesses established and growing in emerging markets, or
acknowledge that it is never a short-term affair.
• Companies fail to appoint a head manager for emerging
markets and often assign this responsibility to an international
manager who is responsible for markets in both developed
and emerging countries. The problem with this is that opera-
tional approaches are distinct in each of these markets.
• Companies fail to understand that business is driven by heads
of regions and business units rather than by heads of func-
tional areas. While the former have a focus and appreciation
for the emerging markets, the latter tend also to be interested
in developed markets.
• Companies do not acknowledge that emerging markets oper-
ate under distinct business models and structures, and often
merely transfer practices tested in developed markets without
considering adaptation.
• The board members of many companies have limited
diversity in terms of culture and ethnic background and do
not develop sufficient appreciation for the peculiarities of
emerging markets.
• Multinationals underestimate the potential and often early
competition from smaller international and domestic com-
panies, thus never accepting that they may be destined as a
follower in emerging markets.
• Economic and political crisis also exist in emerging markets
and have a significant impact on business performance. Top
managers need to understand this, be prepared to adapt and
introduce new tactics rather than changing strategy, which
despite having short-term success, tend to be the wrong
approach in the long term.
• Companies get alarmed by short-term slippages and cut costs to
attain favorable temporary results, yet this is likely to have a struc-
tural impact on strategy implementation and long-term results.
• Companies set unrealistic targets to achieve, which leave man-
agers with limited maneuvering space and short-lived careers.
Entering an Emerging Market 5

• Companies fail to recognize that entering the market early is


fundamental in establishing networks, developing brands and
learning the larger context from which it will operate.
• Senior leaders fail to recognize that developing a network
of reliable contacts often requires establishing friendships
with locals, which requires time and visibility in emerging
markets.
• Companies fail to empower regional and country managers
and delegate decision-making power to local managers.
• Foreign companies fail to recognize that emerging markets are
more price-sensitive and often stick to their pricing structures
instead of adapting to local sensitivities.
• International firms fail to recognize that their product
portfolio is not tailored to the lower and middle segments of
emergent markets and do not develop innovations that are
context-oriented.
• Foreign companies underestimate the competition from local
companies in emergent markets. Local companies understand
better than anyone about local markets, sometimes employ
dubious practices, and often have the support of local govern-
ments.
• One of the largest obstacles that foreign companies face
may be the unwillingness to change long-standing business
practices.
• Another challenge is to appoint senior managers who are
not familiar with the local market, culture, and language in
emerging countries.
• Multinationals that focus too much on the larger emerging
markets, such as BRIC, may neglect smaller markets and miss
better-suited opportunities.
• The fact that demand is volatile and unpredictable in emer-
gent markets may discourage multinationals, which often
expect reliable market information.

The failure factors are numerous and diverse but as Pacek and
Thorniley noted it all boils down to a lack of adequate market entry
6 DOING BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS

preparation. Preparation requires companies to continuously research the


external environment and know how to use internal resources to take
advantage of opportunities. Hence, a preliminary audit that focuses on
external and internal factors is essential. The external factors may be
examined by posing questions concerning the market, the political envi-
ronment, the economic environment, and the business environment, as
depicted in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 External factors and sample questions


Understanding the market
Market potential • How large and wealthy is the market?
• Is there unsatisfied demand for the product/service?
Understanding • Who are the consumers/customers? What are their
local consumers/ characteristics?
customers • How do consumers make their decisions?
Reaching the • How difficult/easy is it to reach potential consumers/
consumer/customer customers?
• How do competitors and non-competitors reach their
customers?
Competition • Which competitors are already operating in the market?
• How strong are these competitors?
Lessons learned by • What do noncompetitors say about the business environment
noncompetitors in the country?
• What have been the largest obstacles to successful
operations?
Local culture • What aspects of local culture are relevant to running a
successful local business?
Understanding the political and economic environment
Economic outlook • How sustainable is economic growth?
• What is driving economic growth?
Political outlook • What is the level of political risk and how will or might affect
the business?
Government • Does the government allow a level playing filed?
policies • Is the government in the hands of local lobbies?
Understanding the business environment
Finance • Is it possible to finance operations locally?
• What access do customers/consumers have to finance?
Labor market • What are the wage/salary rates for the employees who will be
needed?
• What are the most effective ways of recruiting local employees?
Entering an Emerging Market 7

Understanding the business environment


Taxation • What are the current levels of taxation?
• What is the outlook for tax incentives?
Legal environment • How effective and efficient is the local judiciary?
• Is there any hope that the legal system will improve?
Bureaucratic • What are the most common bureaucratic obstacles for
obstacles to business?
business • How easy or difficult it is to set up business in the country?
Crime and • Is crime a problem for business?
corruption • What is the level of corruption?
Infrastructure • What is the quality of local transport infrastructure?
• And telecommunications?
Foreign trade • Is the country a WTO member?
environment • Does it belong to any trading blocs or regional free-trade
areas?
Cost of building a • How expensive is it to build a brand?
business and brand • How much time will it take to do what is necessary to get the
business off the ground?

Table 1.2 Internal factors and sample questions


Resources • How much time and money will be required?
• Is the CEO committed to support business development and
provide necessary resources? And the senior managers?
• What human resources are needed?
Products • Is the product portfolio right for the market?
• Will investment be available for developing new products?
Organization • Will existing internal processes and operational practices help
or hinder what is planned?
• What existing capabilities can be drawn?
Risks • Can the risks that have been identified be managed?
• How would entry be financed?

By the same token, the internal factors must inquire about resources,
products, organization, and risks, as depicted in Table 1.2.
Having done a preliminary external and internal audit, managers need
to prepare a business proposal describing what to do, how to do it, by
when, and resources required. Business must then ask themselves whether
there are similar or better opportunities available in other ­emerging mar-
kets. How then, can we compare the potential of different emerging
markets?
8 DOING BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS

Ranking Emerging Markets


According to the GlobalEdge6 team at the International Business Center
(IBC) at The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, Michigan
State University, there are three main reasons why emerging markets are
attractive. They are target markets, manufacturing bases, and sourcing
destinations.
As target markets they present a growing middle class with substan-
tial demand for consumer products and services. They are also excellent
targets for electronics, automobiles, and healthcare services. The textile
(machinery) industry in India is huge, oil and gas exploration plays a vital
role in Russia, agriculture is a major sector in China, and airplanes are
almost everywhere.
As manufacturing bases they present advantages such as low-wages,
high quality labor for manufacturing and assembly operations. South
Africa is a key source for industrial diamonds; Thailand has become an
important manufacturing location for Japanese MNEs such as Sony,
Sharp, and Mitsubishi; Malaysia and Taiwan are home to manufacturing
of semiconductors by MNEs such Motorola, Intel, and Philips; and in
Mexico and China we find platforms for consumer electronics and auto
assembly.
As sourcing destinations the emerging markets also are using their
advantages to attract MNEs. MNEs have established call centers in East-
ern Europe, India, and the Philippines; Dell and IBM outsource certain
technological functions to knowledge workers in India; and Brazil is a
leading raw material supplier namely in oil and agriculture.
The Emerging Market Potential Index (EMPI) was based on Cavus-
gil indexing approach and developed by the GlobalEdge team to assess
7

the market potential of Emerging Markets. As shown in Table 1.3, EMPI


is based on eight dimensions: market size, market growth rate, market
intensity, market consumption capacity, commercial infrastructure, eco-
nomic freedom, market receptivity, and country risk. Each dimension is
measured using various indicators and are weighed in determining the
overall index. The result is a score on a scale from 1 to 100.
Table 1.3, based on Cavugil, Kiyak, and Yeniyurt8 indicator, is useful
in that it provides the relative position of each country but is lacking
Table 1.3 Market potential index (MPI), 2014
Market Market
Overall Overall Market Market growth consumption Commercial Market Economic Country
rank Country score size intensity rate capacity infrastructure receptivity freedom risk
1 China 100 100 4 100 98 56 9 23 80
2 Hong Kong 56 2 100 62 31 96 100 100 95
3 Japan 54 21 77 49 100 81 9 70 90
4 Canada 53 9 80 55 63 89 65 77 90
5 Singapore 50 2 76 76 33 83 89 70 100
6 Germany 48 12 79 48 85 94 18 71 83
7 India 46 37 36 77 57 14 9 47 64
8 Switzerland 41 2 94 52 48 89 36 78 90
9 United 41 8 85 43 69 93 15 72 75
Kingdom
10 South Korea 41 10 59 67 60 78 21 63 83
11 France 41 10 72 46 72 94 12 61 75
12 Australia 41 5 75 59 60 96 14 79 83
13 United Arab 38 2 66 91 37 88 43 43 74
Emirates
Entering an Emerging Market

14 Norway 37 3 84 62 49 82 16 68 90

(Continued)
9
10

Table 1.3 Market potential index (MPI), 2014 (Continued)


Market Market
Overall Overall Market Market growth consumption Commercial Market Economic Country
rank Country score size intensity rate capacity infrastructure receptivity freedom risk
15 Russia 36 19 41 71 51 81 8 28 64
16 Austria 36 2 77 51 51 97 19 70 83
17 Netherlands 36 3 63 40 53 84 40 71 75
18 Belgium 36 3 69 50 44 80 43 67 75
19 Sweden 35 3 67 52 53 90 16 70 90
20 Brazil 34 18 48 62 41 58 6 50 69
DOING BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS

21 New Zealand 33 2 67 62 41 88 14 78 83
22 Denmark 33 2 68 39 54 94 18 73 83
23 Ireland 32 1 55 41 42 100 36 73 75
24 Italy 32 8 72 33 65 74 11 59 59
25 Mexico 31 10 61 62 39 40 23 54 70
Entering an Emerging Market 11

analysis as it does not provide what the data actually mean, what manag-
ers can do with this data.

From Indicators to Institutions

It is common wisdom that size and growth potential are the two best cri-
teria to select an emerging market. Not so for Khanna and Palepu9 who
argue that lack of institutions, such as distribution systems, credit cards
systems, or data research firms, is the primary factor to consider when
entering into an emerging market. For them, the fact that emerging mar-
kets have poor institutions, thus, inefficient business operations, present
the best business opportunities for companies operating in such dynamic
markets. However, the way businesses enter into emerging markets is dif-
ferent, and are contingent upon variations presented by the institutions
and the abilities of the firms.
Khanna and Palepu point out that the use of composite indexes
to assess the potential of emerging markets, as executives often do,
has limited use because these indicators do not capture the soft infra-
structures and institutions. These composite indexes are useful in rank-
ing market potential of countries when and only these countries have
similar institutional environments. When soft infrastructures differ
we must then look at the institutional context in each market. In fact
when comparing the composite indexes of the BRIC countries we find
that they are similar in terms of competitiveness, governance, and cor-
ruption. Yet the key success factors for companies in the BRIC differ
significantly from country to country. Take for example the retail chain
industry.
In China and Russia retail chain operators, both multinationals and
local companies, converge in urban and semi-urban areas. In contrast, in
Brazil very few multinational retail chains are located in urban centers,
and in India we find even fewer international retail chains due to govern-
ment restrictions that until 2005, did not allow foreign direct investment
in this industry. Thus, when looking at the economic indicators of the
BRIC countries we find that increased consumption provides opportuni-
ties for retail operators.
12 DOING BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS

Best Opportunities Fill in Institutional Voids

From an institutional view the market is a transactional place embedded


in information and property rights, and emerging markets are a place
where one or both of these features are underdeveloped.* Most defini-
tions of emerging markets are descriptive based on poverty and growth
indicators. In contrast a structural definition as proposed by Khanna and
Palepu points to issues that are problematic therefore allowing an imme-
diate identification of solutions. Moreover, a structural definition allows
us not only to understand commonalities among emerging markets but
also to understand what differentiates each of these markets. Finally, a
structural approach provides a more precise understanding of the market
dynamics that genuinely differentiates emerging markets from advanced
economies.
To illustrate, let us contrast the equity capital markets of South Korea
and Chile. According to the IFC definition, Korea is not an emerging
market because it is an OECD member, however, when we look at its
equity capital market we notice that until recently it was not functioning
well, in other words it has an institutional void. Chile on the other hand
is considered an emerging market in Latin America but has an efficient
capital market, thus no institutional void appears in this sector. However,
Chile has institutional voids in other markets such as the products market.
Strategy formulation in emerging markets must begin with a map of
institutional voids. What works in the headquarters of a multinational
company does not per se work in new locations with different institu-
tional environments. The most common mistake companies do when
entering emerging markets is to overestimate the importance of past
experience. This common error reflects a recency bias, or when a person
assumes that recent successful experiences may be transferred to other
places. A manager incorrectly assumes that the way people are motivated
in one country would be the same in the new country (context). It may
be assumed that everyone likes to be appreciated, but the way of express-
ing appreciation depends on the institutional environment. Khanna and
Palepu point out that the human element is the cornerstone of operating

* Ibidem.
Entering an Emerging Market 13

in new contexts. Ultimately, human beings, who provide a mix of history,


culture, and interactions, create institutions.
In short, based on Khanna and Palepu’s institutional approach to
emerging markets it is necessary to answer several questions. Which insti-
tutions are working and missing? Which parts of our business model (in
the home country) would be affected by these voids? How can we build
competitive advantage based on our ability to navigate institutional voids?
How can we profit from the structural reality of emerging markets by
identifying opportunities to fill voids, serving as market intermediaries?

Strategies for Emerging Markets

The work of Khanna and Palepu indicates that there are four generic
strategic choices for companies operating in emerging markets:

• Replicate or adapt?
• Compete alone or collaborate?
• Accept or attempt to change market context?
• Enter, wait, or exit?

Emerging markets attract two competing types of firms, the developed


market-based multinationals and the emerging market-based companies.
Both bring different advantages to fill institutional voids. Multinational
enterprises (MNEs) bring brands, capital talent, and resources, whereas
local companies contribute with local contacts and context knowledge.
Because they have different strengths and resources, foreign and domestic
firms will compete differently and must develop strategies accordingly.
Table 1.4 summarizes the strategies and options for both multina-
tional firms and local companies.
An example of how companies fill institutional voids is provided by
Anand P. Arkalgud (2011).10 Road infrastructure in India is still under-
developed in terms of quality and connectivity. Traditionally, Tata Motors
has been the dominant player in the auto industry but when it started to
receive competition from Volvo in the truck segment and by J­apanese
auto makers in the car segment Tata responded. It created a mini-truck
that not only provided more capacity and safety than the two and
14 DOING BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS

Table 1.4 Responding to institutional voids


Options for
Strategic multinationals from Options for emerging
choice developed countries market-based companies
Replicate or • Replicate business model, • Copy business model from
adapt? exploiting relative advantage developed countries.
of global brand, credibility, • Exploit local knowledge,
know-how, talent, finance, capabilities, and ability to
and other factor inputs. navigate institutional voids to
• Adapt business models, build tailored business models.
products, or organizations to
institutional voids.
Compete • Compete alone. • Compete alone.
alone or • Acquire capabilities to • Acquire capabilities from
collaborate? navigate institutional voids developed markets through
through local partnerships partnerships or JVs with
or JVs. multinational companies to
bypass institutional voids.
Accept or • Take market context as given. • Take market context as given.
attempt to • Fill institutional voids in • Fill institutional voids in
change market service of own business. service of own business.
context?
Enter, wait, or • Enter or stay in market spite • Build business in home mar-
exit? of institutional voids. ket in spite of institutional
• Emphasize opportunities voids.
elsewhere. • Exit home market early in
corporate history if capabili-
ties unrewarded at home.

Source: Khanna and Palepu (2010)

three-wheeled pollutant vehicles used to access market areas but also an


environmentally sound vehicle, one that could easily maneuver U-turns
in such narrow streets.
Another case in India involved Coca Cola, who discovered that their
beverages were being sold “warm.” Coca Cola realized that it needed a
solution to sell its product “chilled.” The reason for the warm bottles was
that electricity supplies in these remote locations were unstable especially
in summer periods. Thus the company developed a solar-powered cooler
and partnered with a local refrigeration company.
Tarun Khanna and Krishna Palepu propose the following five contexts
as a framework in assessing the institutional environment of any country.
The five contexts include the markets needed to acquire input (product,
Entering an Emerging Market 15

labor, and capital) and markets needed to sell output. This is referred to
as the products and services market. In addition to these three dimen-
sions the framework includes a broader sociopolitical context defined by
political and social systems and degrees of openness. When applying the
framework managers need to ask a set of questions in each dimension. An
example of these questions is indicated in Table 1.5 below.

Table 1.5 Framework to assess institutional voids


Institutional
dimension Questions
Product 1. Can companies easily obtain reliable data on customer tastes
markets and purchase behaviors? Are there cultural barriers to market
research? Do world-class market research firms operate in the
country?
2. Can consumers easily obtain unbiased information on the quality
of the goods and services they want to buy? Are there indepen-
dent consumer organizations and publications that provide such
information?
3. Can company’s access raw materials and components of good
quality? Is there a deep network of suppliers? Are there firms that
assess suppliers’ quality and reliability? Can companies enforce
contracts with suppliers?
4. How strong are the logistics and transportation infrastructures?
Have global logistics companies set up local operations?
5. Do large retail chains exist in the country? If so, do they cover
the entire country or only the major cities? Do they reach all
consumers or only wealthy ones?
6. Are there other types of distribution channels, such as direct-
to-consumer channels and discount retail channels that deliver
products to customers?
7. Is it difficult for multinationals to collect receivables from local
retailers?
8. Do consumers use credit cards, or does cash dominate transac-
tions? Can consumers get credit to make purchases? Are data on
customer creditworthiness available?
9. What recourse do consumers have against false claims by compa-
nies or defective products and services?
10. How do companies deliver after-sales service to consumers? Is it
possible to set up a nationwide service network? Are third-party
service providers reliable?
11. Are consumers willing to try new products and services? Do
they trust goods from local companies? How about from foreign
companies?
12. What kind of product-related environmental and safety regulations
are in place? How do the authorities enforce those regulations?

(Continued)
16 DOING BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS

Table 1.5 Framework to assess institutional voids (Continued)


Institutional
dimension Questions
Labor markets 1. How strong is the country’s education infrastructure, especially
for technical and management training? Does it have a good
elementary and secondary education system as well?
2. Do people study and do business in English or in another interna-
tional language, or do they mainly speak a local language?
3. Are data available to help sort out the quality of the country’s
educational institutions?
4. Can employees move easily from one company to another? Does
the local culture support that movement? Do recruitment agen-
cies facilitate executive mobility?
5. What are the major post recruitment-training needs of the people
that multinationals hire locally?
6. Is pay for performance a standard practice? How much weight do
executives give seniority, as opposed to merit, in making promo-
tion decisions?
7. Would a company be able to enforce employment contracts with
senior executives? Could it protect itself against executives who
leave the firm and then compete against it? Could it stop employ-
ees from stealing trade secrets and intellectual property?
8. Does the local culture accept foreign managers? Do the laws
allow a firm to transfer locally hired people to another country?
Do managers want to stay or leave the nation?
9. How are the rights of workers protected? How strong are the
country’s trade unions? Do they defend workers’ interests or only
advance a political agenda?
10. Can companies use stock options and stock-based compensation
schemes to motivate employees?
11. Do the laws and regulations limit a firm’s ability to restructure,
downsize, or shut down?
12. If a company were to adopt its local rivals’ or suppliers’ business
practices, such as the use of child labor, would that tarnish its
image overseas?
Capital markets 1. How effective are the country’s banks, insurance companies, and
mutual funds at collecting savings and channeling them into
investments?
2. Are financial institutions managed well? Is their decision making
transparent? Do noneconomic considerations, such as family ties,
influence their investment decisions?
3. Can companies raise large amounts of equity capital in the stock
market? Is there a market for corporate debt?
4. Does a venture capital industry exist? If so, does it allow individu-
als with good ideas to raise funds?
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America was opened after the feudal mischief was spent, and so
the people made a good start. We began well. No inquisition here,
no kings, no nobles, no dominant church. Here heresy has lost its
terrors. We have eight or ten religions in every large town, and the
most that comes of it is a degree or two on the thermometer of
fashion; a pew in a particular church gives an easier entrance to the
subscription ball.
We began with freedom, and are defended from shocks now for a
century by the facility with which through popular assemblies every
necessary measure of reform can instantly be carried. A congress is
a standing insurrection, and escapes the violence of accumulated
grievance. As the globe keeps its identity by perpetual change, so
our civil system, by perpetual appeal to the people and acceptance
of its reforms.
The government is acquainted with the opinions of all classes,
knows the leading men in the middle class, knows the leaders of the
humblest class. The President comes near enough to these; if he
does not, the caucus does, the primary ward and town-meeting, and
what is important does reach him.
The men, the women, all over this land shrill their exclamations of
impatience and indignation at what is short-coming or is unbecoming
in the government,—at the want of humanity, of morality,—ever on
broad grounds of general justice, and not on the class-feeling which
narrows the perception of English, French, German people at home.
In this fact, that we are a nation of individuals, that we have a
highly intellectual organization, that we can see and feel moral
distinctions, and that on such an organization sooner or later the
moral laws must tell, to such ears must speak,—in this is our hope.
For if the prosperity of this country has been merely the obedience of
man to the guiding of Nature,—of great rivers and prairies,—yet is
there fate above fate, if we choose to spread this language; or if
there is fate in corn and cotton, so is there fate in thought,—this,
namely, that the largest thought and the widest love are born to
victory, and must prevail.
The revolution is the work of no man, but the eternal
effervescence of Nature. It never did not work. And we say that
revolutions beat all the insurgents, be they never so determined and
politic; that the great interests of mankind, being at every moment
through ages in favor of justice and the largest liberty, will always,
from time to time, gain on the adversary and at last win the day.
Never country had such a fortune, as men call fortune, as this, in its
geography, its history, and in its majestic possibilities.
We have much to learn, much to correct,—a great deal of lying
vanity. The spread eagle must fold his foolish wings and be less of a
peacock; must keep his wings to carry the thunderbolt when he is
commanded. We must realize our rhetoric and our rituals. Our
national flag is not affecting, as it should be, because it does not
represent the population of the United States, but some Baltimore or
Chicago or Cincinnati or Philadelphia caucus; not union or justice,
but selfishness and cunning. If we never put on the liberty-cap until
we were freemen by love and self-denial, the liberty-cap would mean
something. I wish to see America not like the old powers of the earth,
grasping, exclusive and narrow, but a benefactor such as no country
ever was, hospitable to all nations, legislating for all nationalities.
Nations were made to help each other as much as families were;
and all advancement is by ideas, and not by brute force or mechanic
force.
In this country, with our practical understanding, there is, at
present, a great sensualism, a headlong devotion to trade and to the
conquest of the continent,—to each man as large a share of the
same as he can carve for himself,—an extravagant confidence in our
talent and activity, which becomes, whilst successful, a scornful
materialism,—but with the fault, of course, that it has no depth, no
reserved force whereon to fall back when a reverse comes.
That repose which is the ornament and ripeness of man is not
American. That repose which indicates a faith in the laws of the
universe,—a faith that they will fulfil themselves, and are not to be
impeded, transgressed or accelerated. Our people are too slight and
vain. They are easily elated and easily depressed. See how fast they
extend the fleeting fabric of their trade,—not at all considering the
remote reaction and bankruptcy, but with the same abandonment to
the moment and the facts of the hour as the Esquimau who sells his
bed in the morning. Our people act on the moment, and from
external impulse. They all lean on some other, and this
superstitiously, and not from insight of his merit. They follow a fact;
they follow success, and not skill. Therefore, as soon as the success
stops and the admirable man blunders, they quit him; already they
remember that they long ago suspected his judgment, and they
transfer the repute of judgment to the next prosperous person who
has not yet blundered. Of course this levity makes them as easily
despond. It seems as if history gave no account of any society in
which despondency came so readily to heart as we see it and feel it
in ours. Young men at thirty and even earlier lose all spring and
vivacity, and if they fail in their first enterprise throw up the game.
The source of mischief is the extreme difficulty with which men are
roused from the torpor of every day. Blessed is all that agitates the
mass, breaks up this torpor, and begins motion. Corpora non agunt
nisi soluta; the chemical rule is true in mind. Contrast, change,
interruption, are necessary to new activity and new combinations.
If a temperate wise man should look over our American society, I
think the first danger that would excite his alarm would be the
European influences on this country. We buy much of Europe that
does not make us better men; and mainly the expensiveness which
is ruining that country. We import trifles, dancers, singers, laces,
books of patterns, modes, gloves and cologne, manuals of Gothic
architecture, steam-made ornaments. America is provincial. It is an
immense Halifax. See the secondariness and aping of foreign and
English life, that runs through this country, in building, in dress, in
eating, in books. Every village, every city, has its architecture, its
costume, its hotel, its private house, its church, from England.
Our politics threaten her. Her manners threaten us. Life is grown
and growing so costly that it threatens to kill us. A man is coming,
here as there, to value himself on what he can buy. Worst of all, his
expense is not his own, but a far-off copy of Osborne House or the
Elysée. The tendency of this is to make all men alike; to extinguish
individualism and choke up all the channels of inspiration from God
in man. We lose our invention and descend into imitation. A man no
longer conducts his own life. It is manufactured for him. The tailor
makes your dress; the baker your bread; the upholsterer, from an
imported book of patterns, your furniture; the Bishop of London your
faith.
In the planters of this country, in the seventeenth century, the
conditions of the country, combined with the impatience of arbitrary
power which they brought from England, forced them to a wonderful
personal independence and to a certain heroic planting and trading.
Later this strength appeared in the solitudes of the West, where a
man is made a hero by the varied emergencies of his lonely farm,
and neighborhoods must combine against the Indians, or the horse-
thieves, or the river rowdies, by organizing themselves into
committees of vigilance. Thus the land and sea educate the people,
and bring out presence of mind, self-reliance, and hundred-handed
activity. These are the people for an emergency. They are not to be
surprised, and can find a way out of any peril. This rough and ready
force becomes them, and makes them fit citizens and civilizers. But if
we found them clinging to English traditions, which are graceful
enough at home, as the English Church, and entailed estates, and
distrust of popular election, we should feel this reactionary, and
absurdly out of place.
Let the passion for America cast out the passion for Europe. Here
let there be what the earth waits for,—exalted manhood. What this
country longs for is personalities, grand persons, to counteract its
materialities. For it is the rule of the universe that corn shall serve
man, and not man corn.
They who find America insipid—they for whom London and Paris
have spoiled their own homes—can be spared to return to those
cities. I not only see a career at home for more genius than we have,
but for more than there is in the world.
The class of which I speak make themselves merry without duties.
They sit in decorated club-houses in the cities, and burn tobacco and
play whist; in the country they sit idle in stores and bar-rooms, and
burn tobacco, and gossip and sleep. They complain of the flatness of
American life; “America has no illusions, no romance.” They have no
perception of its destiny. They are not Americans.
The felon is the logical extreme of the epicure and coxcomb.
Selfish luxury is the end of both, though in one it is decorated with
refinements, and in the other brutal. But my point now is, that this
spirit is not American.
Our young men lack idealism. A man for success must not be pure
idealist, then he will practically fail; but he must have ideas, must
obey ideas, or he might as well be the horse he rides on. A man
does not want to be sun-dazzled, sun-blind; but every man must
have glimmer enough to keep him from knocking his head against
the walls. And it is in the interest of civilization and good society and
friendship, that I dread to hear of well-born, gifted and amiable men,
that they have this indifference, disposing them to this despair.
Of no use are the men who study to do exactly as was done
before, who can never understand that to-day is a new day. There
never was such a combination as this of ours, and the rules to meet
it are not set down in any history. We want men of original perception
and original action, who can open their eyes wider than to a
nationality,—namely, to considerations of benefit to the human race,
—can act in the interest of civilization; men of elastic, men of moral
mind, who can live in the moment and take a step forward.
Columbus was no backward-creeping crab, nor was Martin Luther,
nor John Adams, nor Patrick Henry, nor Thomas Jefferson; and the
Genius or Destiny of America is no log or sluggard, but a man
incessantly advancing, as the shadow on the dial’s face, or the
heavenly body by whose light it is marked.
The flowering of civilization is the finished man, the man of sense,
of grace, of accomplishment, of social power,—the gentleman. What
hinders that he be born here? The new times need a new man, the
complemental man, whom plainly this country must furnish. Freer
swing his arms; farther pierce his eyes; more forward and forthright
his whole build and rig than the Englishman’s, who, we see, is much
imprisoned in his backbone.
’Tis certain that our civilization is yet incomplete, it has not ended
nor given sign of ending in a hero. ’Tis a wild democracy; the riot of
mediocrities and dishonesties and fudges. Ours is the age of the
omnibus, of the third person plural, of Tammany Hall. Is it that Nature
has only so much vital force, and must dilute it if it is to be multiplied
into millions? The beautiful is never plentiful. Then Illinois and
Indiana, with their spawning loins, must needs be ordinary.
It is not a question whether we shall be a multitude of people. No,
that has been conspicuously decided already; but whether we shall
be the new nation, the guide and lawgiver of all nations, as having
clearly chosen and firmly held the simplest and best rule of political
society.
Now, if the spirit which years ago armed this country against
rebellion, and put forth such gigantic energy in the charity of the
Sanitary Commission, could be waked to the conserving and
creating duty of making the laws just and humane, it were to enroll a
great constituency of religious, self-respecting, brave, tender, faithful
obeyers of duty, lovers of men, filled with loyalty to each other, and
with the simple and sublime purpose of carrying out in private and in
public action the desire and need of mankind.
Here is the post where the patriot should plant himself; here the
altar where virtuous young men, those to whom friendship is the
dearest covenant, should bind each other to loyalty; where genius
should kindle its fires and bring forgotten truth to the eyes of men.
It is not possible to extricate yourself from the questions in which
your age is involved. Let the good citizen perform the duties put on
him here and now. It is not by heads reverted to the dying
Demosthenes, or to Luther, or to Wallace, or to George Fox, or to
George Washington, that you can combat the dangers and dragons
that beset the United States at this time. I believe this cannot be
accomplished by dunces or idlers, but requires docility, sympathy,
and religious receiving from higher principles; for liberty, like religion,
is a short and hasty fruit, and like all power subsists only by new
rallyings on the source of inspiration.
Power can be generous. The very grandeur of the means which
offer themselves to us should suggest grandeur in the direction of
our expenditure. If our mechanic arts are unsurpassed in usefulness,
if we have taught the river to make shoes and nails and carpets, and
the bolt of heaven to write our letters like a Gillot pen, let these
wonders work for honest humanity, for the poor, for justice, genius
and the public good.[237] Let us realize that this country, the last
found, is the great charity of God to the human race.
America should affirm and establish that in no instance shall the
guns go in advance of the present right. We shall not make coups
d’état and afterwards explain and pay, but shall proceed like William
Penn, or whatever other Christian or humane person who treats with
the Indian or the foreigner, on principles of honest trade and mutual
advantage. We can see that the Constitution and the law in America
must be written on ethical principles, so that the entire power of the
spiritual world shall hold the citizen loyal, and repel the enemy as by
force of nature. It should be mankind’s bill of rights, or Royal
Proclamation of the Intellect ascending the throne, announcing its
good pleasure that now, once for all, the world shall be governed by
common sense and law of morals.
The end of all political struggle is to establish morality as the basis
of all legislation. ’Tis not free institutions, ’tis not a democracy that is
the end,—no, but only the means. Morality is the object of
government. We want a state of things in which crime will not pay; a
state of things which allows every man the largest liberty compatible
with the liberty of every other man.
Humanity asks that government shall not be ashamed to be tender
and paternal, but that democratic institutions shall be more
thoughtful for the interests of women, for the training of children, and
for the welfare of sick and unable persons, and serious care of
criminals, than was ever any the best government of the Old World.
The genius of the country has marked out our true policy,—
opportunity. Opportunity of civil rights, of education, of personal
power, and not less of wealth; doors wide open. If I could have it,—
free trade with all the world without toll or custom-houses, invitation
as we now make to every nation, to every race and skin, white men,
red men, yellow men, black men; hospitality of fair field and equal
laws to all.[238] Let them compete, and success to the strongest, the
wisest and the best. The land is wide enough, the soil has bread for
all.
I hope America will come to have its pride in being a nation of
servants, and not of the served. How can men have any other
ambition where the reason has not suffered a disastrous eclipse?
Whilst every man can say I serve,—to the whole extent of my being I
apply my faculty to the service of mankind in my especial place,—he
therein sees and shows a reason for his being in the world, and is
not a moth or incumbrance in it.
The distinction and end of a soundly constituted man is his labor.
Use is inscribed on all his faculties. Use is the end to which he
exists. As the tree exists for its fruit, so a man for his work. A fruitless
plant, an idle animal, does not stand in the universe. They are all
toiling, however secretly or slowly, in the province assigned them,
and to a use in the economy of the world; the higher and more
complex organizations to higher and more catholic service. And man
seems to play, by his instincts and activity, a certain part that even
tells on the general face of the planet, drains swamps, leads rivers
into dry countries for their irrigation, perforates forests and stony
mountain chains with roads, hinders the inroads of the sea on the
continent, as if dressing the globe for happier races.
On the whole, I know that the cosmic results will be the same,
whatever the daily events may be. Happily we are under better
guidance than of statesmen. Pennsylvania coal-mines and New York
shipping and free labor, though not idealists, gravitate in the ideal
direction. Nothing less large than justice can keep them in good
temper. Justice satisfies everybody, and justice alone. No monopoly
must be foisted in, no weak party or nationality sacrificed, no coward
compromise conceded to a strong partner. Every one of these is the
seed of vice, war and national disorganization. It is our part to carry
out to the last the ends of liberty and justice. We shall stand, then,
for vast interests; north and south, east and west will be present to
our minds, and our vote will be as if they voted, and we shall know
that our vote secures the foundations of the state, good will, liberty
and security of traffic and of production, and mutual increase of good
will in the great interests.
Our helm is given up to a better guidance than our own; the
course of events is quite too strong for any helmsman, and our little
wherry is taken in tow by the ship of the great Admiral which knows
the way, and has the force to draw men and states and planets to
their good.
Such and so potent is this high method by which the Divine
Providence sends the chiefest benefits under the mask of calamities,
that I do not think we shall by any perverse ingenuity prevent the
blessing.
In seeing this guidance of events, in seeing this felicity without
example that has rested on the Union thus far, I find new confidence
for the future.
I could heartily wish that our will and endeavor were more active
parties to the work. But I see in all directions the light breaking.
Trade and government will not alone be the favored aims of
mankind, but every useful, every elegant art, every exercise of the
imagination, the height of reason, the noblest affection, the purest
religion will find their home in our institutions, and write our laws for
the benefit of men.[239]
NOTES

THE LORD’S SUPPER


Mr. Emerson did not wish to have his sermons published. All that
was worth saving in them, he said, would be found in the Essays.
Yet it seemed best, to Mr. Cabot and to Mr. Emerson’s family, that
this one sermon should be preserved. A record of a turning-point in
his life, it showed at once his thought and his character; for he not
only gives the reasons why he believes the rite not authoritatively
enjoined, and hence recommends its modification or discontinuance,
but with serenity and sweetness renders back his trust into his
people’s hands, since he cannot see his way longer to exercise it as
most of them desire.
In the month of June, 1832, Mr. Emerson had proposed to the
church, apparently with hope of their approval, that the Communion
be observed only as a festival of commemoration, without the use of
the elements. The committee to whom the proposal was referred
made a report expressing confidence in him, but declining to advise
the change, as the matter was one which they could not properly be
called upon to decide.
The question then came back to the pastor, whether he was willing
to remain in his place and administer the rite in the usual form.
He went alone to the White Mountains, then seldom visited, to
consider the grave question whether he was prepared, rather than to
continue the performance of a part of his priestly office from which
his instincts and beliefs recoiled, to sacrifice a position of advantage
for usefulness to his people to whom he was bound by many ties,
and in preparation for which he had spent long years. He wrote, at
Conway, New Hampshire: “Here among the mountains the pinions of
thought should be strong, and one should see the errors of men from
a calmer height of love and wisdom.” His diary at Ethan Allan
Crawford’s contains his doubts and questionings, which Mr. Cabot
has given in his Memoir. Yet there was but one answer for him, and
after a fortnight, he came back clear in his mind to give his decision,
embodied in this sermon, to his people. On the same day that it was
preached, he formally resigned his pastorate. The church was loth to
part with him. It was hoped that some other arrangement might be
made. Mr. Cabot learned that “several meetings were held and the
proprietors of pews were called in, as having ‘an undoubted right to
retain Mr. Emerson as their pastor, without reference to the
opposition of the church.’ At length, after two adjournments and
much discussion, it was decided by thirty votes against twenty-four
to accept his resignation. It was voted at the same time to continue
his salary for the present.”
Thus Mr. Emerson and his people parted in all kindness, but, as
Mr. Cabot truly said, their difference of views on this rite “was in truth
only the symptom of a deeper difference which would in any case
sooner or later have made it impossible for him to retain his office; a
disagreement not so much about particular doctrines or observances
as about their sanction, the authority on which all doctrines and
observances rest.”
In the farewell letter which Mr. Emerson wrote to the people of his
church, he said:—
“I rejoice to believe that my ceasing to exercise the pastoral office
among you does not make any real change in our spiritual relation to
each other. Whatever is most desirable and excellent therein
remains to us. For, truly speaking, whoever provokes me to a good
act or thought has given me a pledge of his fidelity to virtue,—he has
come under bonds to adhere to that cause to which we are jointly
attached. And so I say to all you who have been my counsellors and
coöperators in our Christian walk, that I am wont to see in your faces
the seals and certificates of our mutual obligations. If we have
conspired from week to week in the sympathy and expression of
devout sentiments; if we have received together the unspeakable gift
of God’s truth; if we have studied together the sense of any divine
word; or striven together in any charity; or conferred together for the
relief or instruction of any brother; if together we have laid down the
dead in a pious hope; or held up the babe into the baptism of
Christianity; above all, if we have shared in any habitual
acknowledgment of the benignant God, whose omnipresence raises
and glorifies the meanest offices and the lowest ability, and opens
heaven in every heart that worships him,—then indeed we are
united, we are mutually debtors to each other of faith and hope,
engaged to persist and confirm each other’s hearts in obedience to
the Gospel. We shall not feel that the nominal changes and little
separations of this world can release us from the strong cordage of
this spiritual bond. And I entreat you to consider how truly blessed
will have been our connection if, in this manner, the memory of it
shall serve to bind each one of us more strictly to the practice of our
several duties.”
Page 18, note 1. The doctrine of the offices of Jesus, even in the
Unitarianism of Dr. Channing, was never congenial to Mr. Emerson’s
mind. He notes the same with regard to his father, and even to his
Aunt Mary, in spite of her Calvinism. Any interposed personality
between the Creator and the created was repugnant to him. Even in
March, 1831, he is considering in his journal that his hearers will say,
“To what purpose is this attempt to explain away so safe and holy a
doctrine as that of the Holy Spirit? Why unsettle or disturb a faith
which presents to many minds a helpful medium by which they
approach the idea of God?” and he answers, “And this question I will
meet. It is because I think the popular views of this principle are
pernicious, because it does put a medium, because it removes the
idea of God from the mind. It leaves some events, some things,
some thoughts, out of the power of Him who causes every event,
every flower, every thought. The tremendous idea, as I may well call
it, of God is screened from the soul.... And least of all can we believe
—Reason will not let us—that the presiding Creator commands all
matter and never descends into the secret chambers of the Soul.
There he is most present. The Soul rules over matter. Matter may
pass away like a mote in the sunbeam, may be absorbed into the
immensity of God, as a mist is absorbed into the heat of the Sun—
but the soul is the kingdom of God, the abode of love, of truth, of
virtue.”
Page 19, note 1. In the hope of satisfying those of his people who
held to the letter of the Scriptural Law, Mr. Emerson made the
foregoing clear statement with regard to the authority for the rite,
from the professional point of view. It seems quite unlike his usual
method, and there is little doubt that in it appears the influence of his
elder brother, William, whose honest doubts had led him to abandon
even earlier the profession of his fathers. In the introductory note to
the chapter on Goethe, in Representative Men, is given an account
of his unsuccessful pilgrimage to Weimar, in hopes that the great
mind of Germany could solve these doubts. There is a letter still
preserved, written by William, soon after his return, to his venerable
kinsman at Concord, Dr. Ripley, in which he explains with great
clearness his own reasons for not believing that the Communion rite
was enjoined by Jesus for perpetual observance. The argument on
scriptural grounds there clearly stated is substantially the same as
that which his younger brother makes use of in the beginning of this
sermon. Thus far he has spoken of outward authority; from this point
onward he speaks from within—the way native to him.
Page 25, note 1. Mr. Emerson left the struggles of the Past behind,
and did not care to recall them. Thus, writing of Lucretia Mott, whom
he met when giving a course of lectures in Philadelphia, in January,
1843, he said:—
“Me she taxed with living out of the world, and I was not much
flattered that her interest in me respected my rejection of an
ordinance, sometime, somewhere. Also yesterday—for
Philadelphian ideas, like love, do creep where they cannot go—I was
challenged on the subject of the Lord’s Supper, and with great
slowness and pain was forced to recollect the grounds of my dissent
in that particular. You may be sure I was very tardy with my texts.”
Mr. Emerson’s journal during the period of trial and decision, in the
mountains, shows that he was reading with great interest the life of
George Fox. The simplicity of the Society of Friends, their aversion
to forms and trust in the inward light, always appealed to him.
In his essay on The Preacher he says:—
“The supposed embarrassments to young clergymen exist only to
feeble wills.... That gray deacon, or respectable matron with
Calvinistic antecedents, you can readily see, would not have
presented any obstacle to the march of St. Bernard or of George
Fox, of Luther or of Theodore Parker.” This hints at the help he had
found in the Quaker’s history in his time of need.

HISTORICAL DISCOURSE AT CONCORD


Mr. Emerson’s Discourse was printed soon after its delivery, and
with it, in an Appendix, the following notice of the celebration of the
second centennial anniversary of the incorporation of the town, sent
to him by “a friend who thought it desirable to preserve the
remembrance of some particulars of this historical festival.”

“At a meeting of the town of Concord, in April last, it was


voted to celebrate the Second Centennial Anniversary of the
settlement of the town, on the 12th September following. A
committee of fifteen were chosen to make the arrangements.
This committee appointed Ralph Waldo Emerson, Orator, and
Rev. Dr. Ripley and Rev. Mr. Wilder, Chaplains of the Day.
Hon. John Keyes was chosen President of the Day.
“On the morning of the 12th September, at half past 10
o’clock, the children of the town, to the number of about 500,
moved in procession to the Common in front of the old church
and court-house and there opened to the right and left,
awaiting the procession of citizens. At 11 o’clock, the Concord
Light Infantry, under Captain Moore, and the Artillery under
Captain Buttrick, escorted the civic procession, under the
direction of Moses Prichard as Chief Marshal, from
Shepherd’s hotel through the lines of children to the Meeting-
house. The South gallery had been reserved for ladies, and
the North gallery for the children; but (it was a good omen) the
children overran the space assigned for their accommodation,
and were sprinkled throughout the house, and ranged on
seats along the aisles. The old Meeting-house, which was
propped to sustain the unwonted weight of the multitude
within its walls, was built in 1712, thus having stood for more
than half the period to which our history goes back. Prayers
were offered and the Scriptures read by the aged minister of
the town, Rev. Ezra Ripley, now in the 85th year of his age;—
another interesting feature in this scene of reminiscences. A
very pleasant and impressive part of the services in the
church was the singing of the 107th psalm, from the New
England version of the psalms made by Eliot, Mather, and
others, in 1639, and used in the church in this town in the
days of Peter Bulkeley. The psalm was read a line at a time,
after the ancient fashion, from the Deacons’ seat, and so
sung to the tune of St. Martin’s by the whole congregation
standing.
“Ten of the surviving veterans who were in arms at the
Bridge, on the 19th April, 1775, honored the festival with their
presence. Their names are Abel Davis, Thaddeus Blood, Tilly
Buttrick, John Hosmer, of Concord; Thomas Thorp, Solomon
Smith, John Oliver, Aaron Jones, of Acton; David Lane, of
Bedford; Amos Baker, of Lincoln.
“On leaving the church, the procession again formed, and
moved to a large tent nearly opposite Shepherd’s hotel, under
which dinner was prepared, and the company sat down to the
tables, to the number of four hundred. We were honored with
the presence of distinguished guests, among whom were
Lieutenant-Governor Armstrong, Judge Davis, Alden Bradford
(descended from the 2d governor of Plymouth Colony), Hon.
Edward Everett, Hon. Stephen C. Phillips of Salem, Philip
Hone, Esq., of New York, General Dearborn, and Lieutenant-
Colonel R. C. Winthrop (descended from the 1st governor of
Massachusetts). Letters were read from several gentlemen
expressing their regret at being deprived of the pleasure of
being present on the occasion. The character of the speeches
and sentiments at the dinner were manly and affectionate, in
keeping with the whole temper of the day.
“On leaving the dinner-table, the invited guests, with many
of the citizens, repaired to the court-house to pay their
respects to the ladies of Concord, who had there, with their
friends, partaken of an elegant collation, and now politely
offered coffee to the gentlemen. The hall, in which the
collation was spread, had been decorated by fair hands with
festoons of flowers, and wreaths of evergreen, and hung with
pictures of the Fathers of the Town. Crowded as it was with
graceful forms and happy faces, and resounding with the hum
of animated conversation, it was itself a beautiful living
picture. Compared with the poverty and savageness of the
scene which the same spot presented two hundred years
ago, it was a brilliant reverse of the medal; and could scarcely
fail, like all the parts of the holiday, to lead the reflecting mind
to thoughts of that Divine Providence, which, in every
generation, has been our tower of defence and horn of
blessing.
“At sunset the company separated and retired to their
homes; and the evening of this day of excitement was as
quiet as a Sabbath throughout the village.”

Within the year, Mr. Emerson had come to make his home for life
in the ancestral town, and had become a householder. Two days
after the festival, he drove to Plymouth in a chaise, and was there
married to Lidian Jackson, and immediately brought his bride to her
Concord home.
His aged step-grandfather was the senior chaplain at the
Celebration, and his brother Charles, who was to live with him in the
new home, was one of the marshals.
In preparation for this address Mr. Emerson made diligent
examination of the old town records, and spent a fortnight in
Cambridge consulting the works on early New England in the
College Library. I reproduce most of his references to his authorities
exactly, although there are, no doubt, newer editions of some of the
works.
Page 30, note 1. This story is from Bede’s Ecclesiastical History
(chapter xiii., Bohn’s Antiquarian Library). Mr. Emerson used it in full
as the exordium of his essay on Immortality, in Letters and Social
Aims.
Page 30, note 2. The poem “Hamatreya,” wherein appear the
names of many of these first settlers, might well be read in
connection with the opening passages of this address.
Mr. Emerson’s right of descent to speak as representative of Peter
Bulkeley, who was the spiritual arm of the settlement, as Simon
Willard was its sword-arm, may here be shown: Rev. Joseph
Emerson of Mendon (son of Thomas of Ipswich, the first of the name
in this country) married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Edward Bulkeley,
who succeeded his father, the Rev. Peter Bulkeley, as minister of
Concord. Edward, the son of Joseph of Mendon and Elizabeth
Bulkeley, was father of Rev. Joseph Emerson of Malden, who was
father of Rev. William Emerson of Concord, who was father of Rev.
William Emerson of Harvard and Boston, the father of Ralph Waldo
Emerson.
Page 31, note 1. Neal’s History of New England, vol. i., p. 132.
Page 31, note 2. Neal, vol. i., p. 321.
Page 31, note 3. Shattuck’s History of Concord, p. 158.
Page 32, note 1. On September 2, 1635, the General Court
passed this order:—
“It is ordered that there shalbe a plantac̃on att Musketequid & that
there shalbe 6 myles of land square to belong to it, & that the
inhabitants thereof shall have three yeares im̃ unities from all publ[ic]
charges except traineings; Further, that when any that plant there
shall have occac̃on of carryeing of goods thither, they shall repaire to
two of the nexte magistrates where the teames are, whoe shall have
the power for a yeare to presse draughts, att reasonable rates, to be
payed by the owners of the goods, to transport their goods thither att
seasonable tymes: & the name of the place is changed & here after
to be called Concord.”
Page 32, note 2. Shattuck, p. 5.
Page 33, note 1. In his lecture on Boston (published in the volume
Natural History of Intellect) Mr. Emerson gives an amusing
enumeration of some troubles which seemed so great to the
newcomers from the Old World: he mentions their fear of lions, the
accident to John Smith from “the most poisonous tail of a fish called
a sting-ray,” the circumstance of the overpowering effect of the sweet
fern upon the Concord party, and the intoxicating effect of wild
grapes eaten by the Norse explorers, and adds: “Nature has never
again indulged in these exasperations. It seems to have been the
last outrage ever committed by the sting-rays, or by the sweet fern,
or by the fox-grapes. They have been of peaceable behavior ever
since.”
Page 34, note 1. Johnson’s Wonder-Working Providence, chap.
xxxv. Mr. Emerson abridged and slightly altered some sentences.
Page 35, note 1. Mourt, Beginning of Plymouth, 1621, p. 60.
Page 35, note 2. Johnson, p. 56. Josselyn, in his New England’s
Rarities Discovered, speaks with respect of “Squashes, but more
truly squontersquashes; a kind of mellon, or rather gourd; ... some of
these are green; some yellow; some longish like a gourd; others
round, like an apple: all of them pleasant food, boyled and buttered,
and seasoned with spice. But the yellow squash—called an apple-
squash (because like an apple) and about the bigness of a pome-
water is the best kind.” Wood, in his New England Prospect, says:
“In summer, when their corn is spent, isquotersquashes is their best
bread, a fruit much like a pumpion.”
Page 36, note 1. Nashawtuck, a small and shapely hill between
the Musketaquid and the Assabet streams, at their point of union,
was a pleasant and convenient headquarters for a sagamore of a
race whose best roadway for travel and transportation was a deep,
quiet stream, the fish of which they ate, and also used for manure for
their cornfields along the bluffs. Indian graves have been found on
this hill.
Page 36, note 2. Josselyn’s Voyages to New England, 1638.
Page 36, note 3. Hutchinson’s History of Massachusetts, vol. i.,
chap. 6.
Page 36, note 4. Thomas Morton, New England Canaan, p. 47.
Page 37, note 1. Shattuck, p. 6.
The old Middlesex Hotel, which stood during the greater part of the
nineteenth century on the southwest side of the Common, opposite
the court- and town-houses, had fallen into decay in 1900, and was
bought and taken down by the town as an improvement to the public
square to commemorate the one hundred and twenty-fifth
anniversary of Concord Fight. It is probable that Jethro’s Oak, under
which the treaty was made, stood a little nearer the house of Rev.
Peter Bulkeley, the site of which, about one hundred paces distant
on the Lowell road, is now marked by a stone and bronze tablet.
Page 38, note 1. Depositions taken in 1684, and copied in the first
volume of the Town Records.
Page 39, note 1. Johnson’s Wonder-Working Providence.
Page 39, note 2. New England’s Plantation.
Page 39, note 3. E. W.’s Letter in Mourt, 1621.
Page 40, note 1. Peter Bulkeley’s Gospel Covenant; preached at
Concord in New England. 2d edition, London, 1651, p. 432.
Page 41, note 1. See petition in Shattuck’s History, p. 14.
Page 41, note 2. Shattuck, p. 14. This was the meadow and
upland on the Lowell road, one mile north of Concord, just beyond
the river. On the farm stands the unpainted “lean-to” house, now
owned by the daughters of the late Edmund Hosmer.
Page 42, note 1. Concord Town Records.
Page 43, note 1. Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. i., p.
389.
Page 44, note 1. Savage’s Winthrop, vol. i., p. 114.
Page 44, note 2. Colony Records, vol. i.
Page 44, note 3. See Hutchinson’s Collection, p. 287.
Page 46, note 1. Winthrop’s Journal, vol. i., pp. 128, 129, and the
editor’s note.
Page 46, note 2. Winthrop’s Journal, vol. ii., p. 160.
Page 48, note 1. Town Records.
With the exception of the anecdotes in this and the following
sentence, almost the whole of this account of the theory and practice
of the New England town-meeting was used by Mr. Emerson in his
oration, given in December, 1870, before the New England Society
in New York. The greater part of the matter used in that address is
included in the lecture on Boston, in the volume Natural History of
Intellect.
The New England Society of New York recently published the
Orations delivered before it previous to 1871, including Mr.
Emerson’s, as far as it could be recovered from the scattered
manuscript, and the newspaper reports of the time.
Page 50, note 1. Hutchinson’s Collection, p. 27.
Page 51, note 1. Shattuck, p. 20. “The Government, 13 Nov.,
1644, ordered the county courts to take care of the Indians residing
within their several shires, to have them civilized, and to take order,
from time to time, to have them instructed in the knowledge of God.”
Page 52, note 1. Shepard’s Clear Sunshine of the Gospel,
London, 1648.
Page 52, note 2. These rules are given in Shattuck’s History, pp.
22-24, and were called “Conclusions and orders made and agreed
upon by divers Sachems and other principal men amongst the
Indians at Concord in the end of the eleventh Month (called January)
An. 1646.”
The following are interesting specimens of these:—
Rule 2. “That there shall be no more Powwawing amongst the
Indians. And if any shall hereafter powwaw, both he that shall
powwaw, and he that shall procure him to powwaw, shall pay twenty
shillings apiece.”

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