What if whole states and national economies were to attempt to replicate the corporate successes of Uber or Amazon in something as grand as market disruption? In the corporate world market disruption is associated with innovations in products, business models and technologies with significant changes for market and industry dynamics. Such changes may be accompanied by sizeable transformations in the competitive landscape, resulting in the displacement of incumbents and the creation of new opportunities for producers and consumers. At the level of countries disruption may be associated with gaining preeminence in key sectors of the world economy, enabling the economy to extract disruption dividends. Is there a future for such a disruption paradigm to be driven by emerging market economies and what would be the key features of an economic system that would facilitate such market disruption?
In drawing comparisons on the disruptions patterns across states and corporates, it may be argued that there are factors currently favoring greater similarity between the country-to-country economic dynamics and the company-to-company competition in the corporate world. In particular, the rising fragmentation of the world economy breeds greater competition among countries and regions; the propagation of corporate platforms is accompanied by similar trends in the creation of country-to-country and region-to-region platforms of economic cooperation (the emergence of the “platform economy”)[1]; the high and rising level of market concentration, particularly in the digital economy; the increasing use of friend-shoring and near-shoring in building supply-chains as well as the increasing proximity between big business and the state apparatus in driving economic decisions, including in the increasingly prevalent industrial policy.
Furthermore, the strategies advanced by some of the emerging markets in boosting their growth and development may be likened to the business strategies of the corporate world. In particular, Malaysia’s positioning as an electronics assembly hub may be associated with a business strategy of a “layer player” – a strategy that enabled this ASEAN economy to transition to targeting a transformation into an AI hub in Southeast Asia. China for its turn may be increasingly seen as shifting from “reverse engineering” to implementing an orchestrator business model in which it is focusing on coordinating the operation of its widening ecosystem of business, country-level and regional alliances.
How can such state-to-corporate analogies be carried over into the world of market disruption? In my view, as is the case with companies and corporate platforms, the two key preconditions for a successful market disruption framework at the level of countries or regions are the ability to innovate and to then scale this innovation across the global economy. In this respect, while small dynamic economies may have the benefit of agility and flexibility in innovation, they may face more limitations than the global heavyweights in scaling their business models and innovations to the rest of the global economy. At the same time, small economies such as Singapore have concluded a whole plethora of economic agreements across the globe, expanding thus the possibilities to scale their business models and innovations.
There are in fact examples of small economies such as Singapore succeeding in employing business-like strategies of disruption to position themselves among the global leaders. In particular, Singapore’s strategy of digitalization is placing the economy as a frontrunner of the international economic cooperation in the digital space, including via the conclusion of digital economic accords (DEAs). Another example is the UAE developing a platform strategy, with the regulatory regime providing scope for the operation of free economic zones as SaaS platforms and the state serving as a matchmaker in forging alliances to invest in disruption. One of the cases in point is the state-sponsored partnership between Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund, with SoftBank’s Vision Fund to co-invest in disruptive technologies. The resulting vector of economic development is geared towards economic diversification away from the reliance on oil and gas revenues towards strategic positioning as a key “disruption enabler”.
While the scale of success may differ, at the very least there is mounting evidence of rising activism coming from emerging markets in attempting to use technological advances in the digital space to disrupt the reigning status-quo across sectors and regions. One such case is El Salvador that rendered Bitcoin the legal tender and launched the state-sponsored Chivo wallet (e-wallet that enables transactions in Bitcoin). Another example is that of Kenya’s MPesa – a mobile-based P2P system that exceeded 80% adoption rate by the adult population and that contributed significantly towards financial inclusion in Africa. Furthermore, MPesa recently advanced towards scaling its operations across the wider region by partnering with PayPal on July 21, 2025 to enable more than 30 million users to send and receive funds globally[2].
What would then be the elements of a “disrupt economy” model? In the fiscal sphere the structure of outlays should be more skewed towards such categories as R&D and education. In the monetary policy area, ensuring lower inflation and exchange rate stability would allow the economic system not to be undermined by high volatility, thus allowing it focus on pursuing innovation. Structurally, there has to be a critical degree of openness that allows the economic system to absorb inflows of capital, technology, high-skilled labor – all necessary ingredients of innovation and market disruption. The regulatory environment needs to allow for high mobility in the factors of production and provide sufficient scope for the creation of start-ups. Openness is also crucial for the economy to be able to forge alliances across the global economy in order to scale the disruption model across foreign markets.
On that latter point, the development of diversified networks of alliances and ecosystems is crucial for the success of taking the disruptive strategies from the national economy level to the wider regional and global scale. Indeed, one of the keys to success in leading market disruption by companies from the developed world was not only the innovation component, but also the greater scope to scale such strategies across a wide array of countries and regions given the high degree of market integration across the developed world. At the same time, the high degree of market fragmentation in the Global South may be one of the barriers limiting the capability of countries and corporates to scale their innovation.
(to be continued)
[1] https://valdaiclub.com/a/reports/the-platform-world-from-corporates-to-regions/
[2] https://africa-news-agency.com/kenya-m-pesa-partners-with-paypal-for-cross-border-payments/
Yaroslav Lissovolik, Founder, BRICS+ Analytics
Image by geralt via Pixabay