Competing with multinational enterprises’ entry: Search strategy, environmental complexity, and survival of local firms

•Competitive dynamics between multinational enterprises (MNEs)’s entry and local firms is examined.•The combination of the agent-based simulation model and the economic model of competition is applied.•MNEs’ entry firstly reduces the survival rate of local firms, and this effect is heightened by environment complexity, but diminishes over time.•Local firms with a broader knowledge search are better able to confront the negative impact of MNEs’ entry over time.•The negative effect of MNEs’ entry is weaker for local firms with a strong retrieval capacity.