Abstract
This paper explores the strategic use of ethnocentric staffing and technological dominance in the international staffing practices of Indian IT MNCs operating in the United Kingdom. Drawing on qualitative data from twenty-eight interviews and a case study of Tata Consultancy Services, the research investigates how Indian information technology firms navigate internationalisation challenges as a strategic tool to achieve competitive advantage. The study identifies key liabilities: foreignness, emergingness, newness, and country-of-origin, and examines how Indian multinationals respond to them. The findings challenge conventional assumptions that multinational corporations naturally evolve toward geocentric staffing as they mature (Perlmutter and Heenan, 1974). Instead, Indian information technology firms leverage parent-country advantages, particularly in human capital and domain knowledge, to sustain global operations. The paper contributes to international human resource management literature by reframing ethnocentric staffing not as a transitional phase but as a deliberate strategy rooted in competitive logic. Thus, this paper examines how technologically dominant emerging market MNCs operate within economically dominant host-country environments. It further explains how this technological dominance is embedded in the tacit skills of Indian IT expatriates working in the international subsidiaries in the UK.