The Hidden Cost of Rushing into Emerging Markets

Emerging markets are increasingly important for multinational companies (MNCs), but entering these markets can be a difficult and costly experience. As interest in emerging markets grows, so too has research into their unique challenges and opportunities. A critical, yet overlooked, problem is that companies often take an overly optimistic view of how quickly success can be achieved in these complex, unfamiliar environments—a phenomenon we call the temporal optimism trap. We explain how companies can fall into this trap and offer executives practical strategies for avoiding it.