ABSTRACT
Emphasis on MNEs has traditionally focused on western firms and not on Asian MNEs. Firms from Asian capital exporting countries were internationalizing and multinationalizing their business activities and have emerged or are emerging as Asian multinational enterprises (World Bank, 1993). In recent years, research interest was beginning to focus on these Asian enterprises and their direct investment activities (Ting, 1985; Ulgado et al., 1994; Yeung, 1994, 1997; Pangarkar, 1998). While research on Asian MNEs is growing, knowledge of the nature, organization and operations of Asian MNEs is still in its infancy. For example, are the Asian MNEs really different from the western MNEs? Are differences in strategic traits of MNEs from different Asian countries due to differences in the levels of development in these countries (such as Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) and Less Developed Countries (LDCs)) as predicted by the investment development path (IDP) thesis (Dunning, 1993)? van Hoesel (1999) and Dunning et al. (1998) contend that the MNEs from the Asian NICs constitute the second wave of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) which differs from the first wave of the Third World Multinational Enterprises (TWMNEs). Yet the precise nature of the strategic advantages of these firms is not clear and a considerable knowledge gap about them still exists (van Hoesel, 1999). Since comparative empirical research on MNEs originating from different Asian countries is limited (Luo, 1998; Sim & Ali, 2001), further research comparing MNEs from different Asian countries at varying levels of development is worthy of attention.
