Is Competitive Advantage a Necessary Condition for the Emergence of the Multinational Enterprise?
质疑了竞争优势是跨国公司出现必要条件的传统观点，从三个角度推导出跨国公司可在不具备竞争优势时出现的条件，对国际商务理论有重要启发。
This article challenges the view that competitive adantage is a necessary condition for the emergence of the multinational enterprise. It formally derives the conditions under which multinational enterprises may emerge without possessing a competitive advantage vis-a-vis their rivals. This counterintuitive argument is based on three insights: (1) the ability of a larger number of disadvantaged home country entrepreneurs to enroll workers in the host country more efficiently than a smaller number of advantaged host country entrepreneurs; (2) asymetric liability of foreignness for home and host country entrepreneurs; and (3) the ability of location and internalization advantages to substitute for ownership advantage.