Legitimacy beyond borders: Indian software services firms in the United States, 1984 to 2004

The emergence of developing country multinational companies (DMNCs) provides us an opportunity to redress the neglect of the process of cross-border legitimation. We argue that DMNCs face three challenges to legitimation in developed country markets—liability of foreignness, liabilities of origin, and liability of advantage. By means of a qualitative inquiry into the cultural-cognitive legitimation of Indian software services firms in the United...