From Emerging to Emerged: A Decade of Development of Dragon Multinationals

Asia Pacific Journal of Management

Special Issue and Conference on “From Emerging to Emerged: A Decade of Development of Dragon Multinationals”

Submission Deadline: April 15, 2015

Conference Place and Date: December, 2015 (tentative dates)

Venue: Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Estimated Date of Publication: November 2016

 

Special Issue Guest Editors:

Jane Lu (University of Melbourne and National University of Singapore)

Xufei Ma (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Lucy Taksa (Macquarie University)

Yue Wang (Macquarie University)

 

Special Issue Consulting Editors:

Mike Peng (University of Texas at Dallas)

Ravi Ramamurti (Northeastern University)

 

Conference Sponsor:

Department of Marketing and Management, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

 

In 2006, the Asia Pacific Journal of Management (APJM) published an influential article “Dragon multinationals: New players in 21st century globalization” (Mathews, 2006a, 23:5-27). In this conceptual article, John Mathews (Macquarie University, Australia) defines firms from the periphery—especially those from the Asia Pacific region—as ‘dragon multinationals’. The author develops a new model to illustrate the three pillars common in these firms’ pattern of accelerated internationalization and summarizes them into his linkage, leverage, and learning (LLL) model.

According to Mathews (2006a), for dragon multinationals, the best and the quickest way to capture global opportunities and to tap into global resources is first to link up with firms around the global, second to leverage such links to overcome resource barriers (including foreign direct investment (FDI) through acquisitions), and third to learn to build up their own capabilities in a cumulative fashion. These three pillars of linkage, leverage and learning are what make dragon multinationals’ international expansion distinctive from the internationalization pattern of Western incumbents.

To the extent that firms that lack initial resources may take advantage of the increasingly interconnected global economy in a pattern consistent with the LLL model, the LLL model may become one of the dominant paradigms in international business (IB) research in the 21st century, just like how the OLI model was viewed by the IB and management community in the 20th century. We do not know whether this significant paradigm development will happen, but the fact that John Mathews’ article won the second APJM Best Paper Award in 2009 and became the second most cited APJM paper ever (with over 600 Google Scholar citations) in just a few years after its appearance in 2006 is a strong signal that the IB and management community may just be ready to embrace such a paradigm development. However, whether such a paradigm development will materialize (Dunning, 2006; Narula, 2006) is at least dependent on two critical issues, which will be addressed in this Special Issue. First, do we have accumulated sufficient evidence to suggest that there is indeed a need for a new paradigm such as the LLL model to account for a very different internationalization process? Second, nearly ten years since Mathews (2006a), do we have sufficient knowledge about ways that those already emerged dragon multinationals (such as Acer, Li & Fung, and Lenovo that appeared in Mathews’ original article) manage their global operations?  

To further enrich our understanding of the merits and limits of the LLL model, we also call for papers that provide new theoretical or empirical insights to help us better understand the internationalization patterns and strategies adopted by firms from the rapidly developing Asia Pacific region including those are still emerging and those already emerged in the global stage. To the extent that management problems remain the same over time while their solutions differ from part of the world to part of the world (Hostede, 2007), we also welcome manuscripts that look at the impact of the emerging or emerged dragon multinationals on the strategies and behaviours of Western MNEs in different parts of the world.

Overall, this Special Issue provides an opportunity to (1) reflect on John Mathews’ influential article on the then emerging dragon multinationals, and (2) bring together research on recent development of those dragon multinationals that are already emerged in the global market as well as research on the interactions between these (relatively) new players and incumbent western players in an increasingly interconnected global business environment. To serve these purposes, manuscripts are not restricted to, but could deal with the following topics:

• Empirical studies to test the validity of the LLL model in a broader range of firms (including but not limited to emerging and emerged dragon multinationals).  
• How the strategies, structures, and management practices (e.g. how to manage the challenge of diverse workforce) adopted by those emerged dragon multinationals differ from MNEs from the West and Japan.
• How the LLL model and OLI model complement or substitute each other.
• How the expansion of dragon multinationals to regions such as Africa and Australia affects the strategies of Western MNEs in these regions.
• How the pattern of expansion of dragon multinationals is affected by varying institutional conditions in their home countries.
• What the performance implications are as a result of the expansion of dragon multinationals.

Papers for the Special Issue should be submitted electronically to the APJM Online Submission System at https://www.editorialmanager.com/apjm/, and identified as submissions to the “From emerging to emerged: a decade of development of dragon multinationals” Special Issue. The deadline for receipt of papers for this special issue is April 15, 2015. The format of submissions must comply with submission guidelines posted at the APJM website. Please indicate that your submission is to be reviewed for the Special Issue on “From Emerging to Emerged: A Decade of Development of Dragon Multinationals” (choose that in the “article type” item during the submission process).

Papers will be double-blind peer-reviewed. We will make initial editorial decisions by July 1, 2015. Authors invited to revise and resubmit their work will be invited to present the papers at a Special Issue development conference hosted by the Department of Marketing and Management at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

The papers accepted and presented at the special issue conference will be considered for publication in the Special Issue of the APJM. Presentation at the conference does not necessarily guarantee publication in the special issue. The combination of a development conference and a Special Issue nevertheless follows a highly successful APJM initiative to bring out the full potential of authors and papers.

 

For questions about the special issue, please contact any of the Special Issue Editors:

Jane Lu

Professor, Department of Management and Marketing, University of Melbourne; and National University of Singapore

Email: jane.lu@unimelb.edu.au

Xufei Ma

Associate Professor, Department of Management, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Email: xufei@cuhk.edu.hk

Lucy Taksa

Professor, Department of Marketing and Management, Macquarie University

Email: lucy.taksa@mq.edu.au

Yue Wang

Associate Professor, Department of Marketing and Management, Macquarie University

Email:  yue.wang@mq.edu.au

 

References:

Hofstede, G. (2007). Asian management in the 21st century. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 24: 411-420.

Dunning, J. H. (2006). Comment on Dragon multinationals: New players in 21st century globalization. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 23: 139-141.

Narula, R. (2006). Globalization, new ecologies, new zoologies, and the purported death of the eclectic paradigm. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 23: 143-151.

Mathews, J. A. (2006a). Dragon multinationals: New players in 21st century globalization. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 23: 5-27.

Mathews, J. A. (2006b). Responses to Professors Dunning and Narula. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 23: 153-155.