ABSTRACT
Globalization in the twenty-first century is characterized by the increasing integration of a variety of small and medium-sized players in international networks of production, movement of goods, and flows of information and knowledge (Dicken 2000; Mathews 2006). These features of globalization will continue to throw up new opportunities for involvement on the part of innovative small and medium-sized players, whowill create constant pressure on incumbents. Industries in the Asian Newly Industrializing Economies (NIEs) have upgraded by building links to internationalmarkets and to the necessary sources of technology, expertise, managerial experience, and capital in the advanced countries. Changes emanating from the advanced industrial economies, particularly theUnited States, have begun to alter substantially the prospects for supplier-oriented industrial development in East Asia (Sturgeon and Lester 2005).The concept of “dragon multinationals” has been advanced to characterize multinational corporations (MNCs) that are relative newcomers on the global economic scene, especially the Asian NIEs with an overseas Chinese connection (Mathews 2002, 2006). Unlike MNCs from advanced industrialized economies, the dragonmultinationals from theAsianNIEs are latecomers that internationalize from the periphery rather than from the center, encountering resource shortages and greater distances to consumers and suppliers alike. Recent work has gone beyond just identifying these MNCs: it now concentrates on differentiating between characteristics, strategies, advantages and performance of the groups and their affiliated firms, such as the contrast between Taiwanese and South Korean business groups (Dacin and Delios 2005). Yeung (2006a) argues that the interplay between corporate strategies and home-base advantages within the context of changing global production networks can offer a better explanation for the differentiated competitive transformation of Asian electronics, changing firms from “followers” to “market leaders.” Most studies of the distinctive developmental models of the Asian NIEs have been primarily conducted from the perspective of home regions; relatively little has been written on the transformations of cross-border investment from various sources of the Asian NIEs in host countries, such as transitional China.
