ABSTRACT
For a long time, developing countries acted only as host countries for multinational activities and never as home countries. But multinational activities are no longer monopolised by developed countries. Since the late 1960s, we have witnessed the rise of transnational corporations (TNCs) from developing countries, led by Hong Kong TNCs and those from Taiwan and South Korea, among others. We call these the first generation of TNCs from less developed countries (LDCs). Since the 1990s, more and more TNCs from developing countries have emerged; these ‘second-generation’ TNCs from LDCs include the Chinese TNCs such as Haier, TCL, Huawei and Lenovo that have received worldwide attention.
