Toward an integrated theory of multinational evolution: The evidence of Chinese multinational enterprises as latecomers

Abstract

This paper seeks to address the fundamental question of how much we can modify and enhance the ownership–location–internalization (OLI) Model of multinational enterprise (MNE) formation to reflect the new evidence of MNE latecomers from the developing countries. The evidence of three longitudinal cases from China suggests that the traditional OLI and the newly proposed linkage–leverage–learning (LLL) Model of MNE formation can be readily integrated within a content-process framework of MNE evolution so as to better explain all types of MNE from both the developed and the developing countries.