There have been several schools of thoughts defining emerging markets. While one visualizes them as growing economies, which have been opened by globalization and liberalization, some other school of thoughts define them as growing competitors of the Western world.

The book however brings a different view of these markets. The authors define emerging markets as those economies in which the buyers and sellers are somehow not able to meet efficiently to carry out effective trade. This inefficiency creates institutional voids referred to as absence in emerging markets of things that are taken for granted.

Institutional voids result in increased transaction costs as well as heightened operating challenges. The cold distribution channel of the Indian retail system stands as one of the various examples of institutional voids suggested in the book. Lack of intermediaries like market research companies also stands out as voids. The authors have identified ways by which the companies can try to fill these voids.