This review article starts from the question: how does the global business system appear to a challenger firm, and how have challenger Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) from formerly peripheral areas such as the Asia Pacific established themselves successfully, against the sometimes fierce resistance of incumbents? To answer this question, the review develops an argument concerning the pluralistic character of the process of globalization, as contrasted with the conventional account that sees global processes creating uniformity and convergence. This alternative account is based on a review of the experiences of latecomer and newcomer MNEs, particularly those from the Asia Pacific-such as Acer, Ispat International, Li & Fung and the Hong Leong Group-that are dubbed "Dragon Multinationals." I argue that the innovative features that these MNEs share, such as their accelerated internationalization, strategic innovation and organizational innovation, fit particularly well with the characteristics of the emergent global economy as one of complex inter-firm linkages. The core proposition of the review is that this complementarity between the characteristics of the emergent global economy and latecomer and newcomer strategic and organizational innovations is what drives the remarkable success of these Asia Pacific firms in establishing themselves as serious international players. Such a proposition carries implications for the process of globalization as well as for the dominant frameworks utilized in International Business. The review argues that Dragon Multinationals adopt a different perspective to the resources accessed through internationalization, and that this requires a rethink of the criteria normally utilized in resource-based accounts of strategy. The challenger firm internationalizing in order to access resources also poses a challenge to the dominant OLI (ownership, locational, internalization) account of multinational advantage. Thus it is argued that the question posed at the outset goes to the core of the IB frameworks, and thereby counts as one of the 'big questions' that should guide research in IB in the 21 st century.

The initial stages of internationalisation, prior to firms having established their definitive sources of advantage, remain the relatively unexplored area of the international business (IB) literature. At these early stages, where firms are seeking to establish themselves, and new multinational firms are appearing to exploit new opportunities created by globalisation, the entrepreneurial aspects of internationalisation come to the fore. In this paper we aim to delineate an emerging field of IB scholarship: we use the appearance of international new ventures, and the phenomenon of accelerated internationalisation that they feature, to identify a set of issues that has slipped through the net of some of the existing IB frameworks. We propose that the salient features of accelerated and early internationalisation by the newly internationalising firm are best captured in a framework that is found at the intersection of entrepreneurial and internationalisation perspectives, which we propose be known as international entrepreneurial dynamics. We discuss such a framework in terms of entry points and pathways mapped by firms as they probe the IB arena, and the key factors that impinge on behaviour and strategic choices. In line with recent developments in the entrepreneurship literature, these are grouped into three milestones of entrepreneurial processes that extend across national boundaries: (1) the discovery of new opportunities; (2) the deployment of resources in the exploitation of these opportunities; and (3) the engagement with competitors. Implications for MNE and internationalisation theory are discussed. Journal of International Business Studies (2007) 38, 387–403. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400271

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