ABSTRACT
The new research on emerging-economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) has grown rapidly (e.g., Li, 1994, 2003, 2007; Luo and Tung, 2007; Mathews, 2002, 2006). This emerging research has focused primarily on the potential of EMNEs as global latecomers to catch up with and leapfrog the established multinational enterprises from the developed economies (DMNEs) as the global incumbents, despite the doubts raised by the traditional multinational enterprise (MNE) theories, such as the Ownership–Location–Internalization (OLI) Model (Dunning, 1988, 1995, 2006) and the Internationalization Process (IP) Model (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977, 1990, 2009). Even though the unique potential of EMNEs has been recognized (e.g., Li, 2003, 2007; Mathews, 2002, 2006), we know very little about the underlying mechanisms for EMNEs to catch up with and leapfrog DMNEs, especially their sources of competitive advantage and the unique mechanisms of innovation that underlie the trajectory of accelerated learning via exploration and exploitation (see Li, 2010 for a review). The implicit assumption is that most EMNEs rely primarily on low-cost imitation as the basic source of their competitive advantage. Hence, there exists a major gap in the literature on EMNEs as emerging challengers. In order to understand the trajectory of accelerated learning by EMNEs and further develop the learning-based view of internationalization (Li, 2010), we must consider the unspecified drivers behind the trajectory of accelerated learning by EMNEs in sharp contrast to those of DMNEs (cf. Hobday, 1995, 2005; Li, 1994, 2003, 2007; Madhok and Keyhani, 2012).
