Configurations of home-country experience, leapfrog strategy, and management team composition for acceleration of international expansion: Evidence from Asian multinational enterprises

Asian multinational enterprises (MNEs) are latecomers in the world economy, but some have accelerated their international expansion pace and become significant players in the twenty-first century globalization. This study adopts the set-theoretic approach to explain the acceleration of international expansion among latecomer MNEs. Specifically, this study explores configurations of home-country experience, leapfrog strategy, and management team composition that contribute to some latecomer MNEs’ high acceleration of international expansion. The results suggest seven applicable configurations, reflecting three archetypes of latecomer MNEs that achieve high acceleration of international expansion. We named the three archetypes by employing metaphors of fast-moving animals: (1) newborn tigers, (2) safari lions, and (3) savannah cheetahs, which represent distinctive sub-breeds of latecomer MNEs in the new zoology of the present globalized world. The results offer unique insights into theoretical debates regarding the sufficiency of conventional international business theories for explaining the international expansion of latecomer MNEs.