Operating in Emerging Markets: A Guide to Management and Strategy in the New International Economy

Appendix: From Third World to Emerging Markets: Definitions, Contexts, and Meanings

Understanding emerging markets means understanding their role in the world economy and how they are perceived by companies and policy makers based in the Triad. In this appendix, we explain the definitions that have been used to identify emerging markets in light of the geopolitical and economic context in which they first appeared. We point out that perceptions, and with them definitions, change through time, as circumstances change—economies once rather disparagingly grouped as the “Third World” are now promisingly called “emerging.” We then clarify the meaning of the growing number of acronyms used contemporarily to group emerging markets—BRICS, Civets, N11s—providing ...