Accelerated internationalization and resource leverage strategizing: The case of Chinese wind turbine manufacturers

Abstract

Accelerated internationalization is an important phenomenon in international business (IB), where it has been linked mainly with studies of born globals and patterns of internationalization utilized by small and medium-sized enterprises. Building on recent research on the (redefined) concept of speed of internationalization, we seek to extend the domain of accelerated internationalization to encompass cases where large firms in certain industries from emerging markets such as China and India globalize at an accelerated pace. We utilize cases from the Chinese wind turbine manufacturing industry to illustrate the process, and apply strategic reasoning based on resource leverage as a means of explaining such phenomena – complementing the extant frameworks based on microeconomic reasoning. We argue that both approaches are needed to make sense of the important empirical phenomena revealed by examination of the patterns of internationalization exhibited by emerging market multinationals.