The Globalization of Business and East Asian Developing-Country Multinationals

The current global political economy can trace its origins back to the world economic crisis of the 1970s and a number of consequent ‘corporate survival strategies’ . As the discussion below will show, these strategies have, both intentionally and unintentionally, transformed the world economy to such an extent that it is now possible to glean the preliminary structures of a global, but regionalized world system of the twenty-first century.1 A specific manifestation of this process has been the ‘rise’ of East Asia. Despite the recent Asian financial crisis, this region will continue to constitute a significant and growing component of the world economic system. Moreover, in consequence, East Asian developing-country multinationals (EA-DCMs) will figure as a formidable force in the future, both regionally and - increasingly - globally. This chapter aims firstly to explain how EA-DCMs have been engendered2 by globalization (and its handmaiden regionaliza- tion; Mirza, 1998); secondly, to describe their principal dimensions and characteristics; thirdly, to analyse their strategy and behaviour, especially in a regional context; and, finally, suggest some further avenues for research and investigation.