Internationalization of “Latecomers” and “Small and Medium-sized” Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises （EMNEs）

Case Study of Vietnamese Telecommunications Company

Abstract

In recent years, the internationalization of ASEAN companies has been accelerating. Unlike BRICs companies such as China and India, ASEAN companies are generally latecomers to internationalization and are small in scale. Vietnam’s Viettel, one of the ASEAN multinational corporations, has an internationalization strategy that targets low-income small and medium-sized countries as its main target, with particular emphasis on the poor regions of those countries. The company’s competitive advantage is its overwhelming strength in Vietnam and its “non-traditional FSAs” such as business know-how in developing countries. The case of Viettel may also be useful in considering the internationalization of other ASEAN companies that share the characteristics of latecomers and small and medium-sized enterprises.