Our understanding of the process of firm establishment of foregin firms within the developing and emerging countries remains limited, while the market-specific context-driven nature of the firm establishment process has been largely overlooked in the literature. We aim to address these omissions and explore the establishment process of a Spanish multinational telecommunication firm, Telefónica, in Brazil and Chile applying the "Four Stages Firm Establishment Process Model" by Abraha (1994). We identify strategic responses crafted by Telefónica to overcome competitive challenges during its establishment process. We revise Abraha's model in view of the findings and conclude with implications for managerial practices and future research.