Government Support and Internationalisation of Emerging Nigerian Oil and Gas Multinational Enterprises (Published)
African emerging market multinationals remain understudied in internationalisation research, creating a contextual gap that this study addresses. This study examines the effect of government support mechanisms and GDP growth on the internationalisation of Nigerian oil and gas firms from 2021 to 2026, using Foreign Sales Ratio and Foreign Assets Ratio as dependent variables. The research design was ex-post facto and panel data of nine listed companies were analysed using Pooled OLS, Random Effects Models and Fixed Effects Models. The Fixed Effects Model was proved to be the best estimator by the Hausman test. Results indicate that government ownership (FSR: β = 0.0031, p = 0.033; FAR: β = 0.0045, p = 0.012), diplomatic support (FSR: β = 0.0172, p = 0.034; FAR: β = 0.0164, p = 0.031), policy support, government-backed loans, government subsidiaries, and GDP growth all exert positive and significant effects on internationalisation. Government subsidiaries are the most influential in terms of asset-based internationalisation, and diplomatic and policy support is more significant in terms of export-based internationalisation. The research finds that institutional support systems are key drivers of internationalisation performance, and proposes increased diplomatic trade facilitation, increasing access to state-supported financing and stable industrial policy regimes to maintain the international competitiveness of oil and gas companies in Nigeria.
Keywords: emerging market multinationals, foreign assets ratio, foreign sales ratio, government support, internationalisation