Dr. Sunny Li Sun

1. Introduction:

      In our constantly evolving world, smartphones gradually become one of the most important equipment in our everyday lives. The rise in the need of smart device leads to the fact that there are many more brands competing against each other to increase market share during the fourth industrial revolution and Huawei is not the exception. With its tactful strategies of focusing on developing R&D which considered as its main competitive advantage, Huawei has step by step reinforced its position in low-cost segmentation. This Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications company has exemplified a successful case of a multinational enterprise applying MNEs theory into internalization from emerging economies. Personally, this topic appears to be appealing to me because according to Joe Kelly, Huawei’s vice president for international media affairs, Vietnam is in top 15 key target markets of Huawei and after 19 years, the total investment of Huawei into domestic market reaches to the figure of 230 million USD. Through conducting a research on specific case, Dr. Sunny Li Sun emphasizes that the shrewd, timely and persistent strategy of this “wolf against global elephants” has contributed to the result of Huawei ranking 2nd in the world’s smartphone production and aimed to 2nd position in smartphones’ market share of Vietnam.

2.  Methodology & aims:

       Dr. Sunny Li Sun decided to use case study as the main methodology to investigate this case because of novelty perspectives, independent experiments as well as different ways of thinking it brings about instead of basing heavily on current theoretical construction, which still consists of limit. The process of interviewing related people (such as company’s as well as rivals’ managers), the long-term tracking of 15-year reports ,… has proved to be accurate way of going in-depth into the actual case. By simultaneously interpreting data of internationalization experience of Huawei and answering 3 questions of MNEs theory, Dr. Sunny Li Sun aims to not only show scholars the path of triumphant company but also enrich the existing on-paper framework on internationalization of MNEs from EEs.

1. Where do competitive edges of MNEs formulate from?
2. What obstacles and how MNEs confront with during the process of internationalizing?
3. How could MNEs tackle with resistance which has been brought about by domestic enterprises?

1. The scope of the research:

    + When: 21-year development from the Huawei’s establishment in 1988 to the publishing of study in 2009, especially focused on 8 years of accelerating internationalization.

     + Who: The researchers conduct interviews with 13 seniors managers from headquarters of Huawei which located in China, USA,… as well as 4 senior managers from Huawei’s rivals or partners which play an important part in many watershed moment during the development of Huawei such as Cisco, 3Com, Nortel,… The process of getting testimonials takes place in the duration of 5 years (2005 - 2009).

Moreover, all the figures to exemplify the significance of Huawei in the market share couldn’t be accomplished without the opinion of consumers.

    + Where: One of the main factors to contribute to the success of Huawei is its widespread markets, which range from Asia to Europe. As a consequence, the scope of the research is large. Even though the researchers mainly focus on emerging economies like Asia, they also cast a look on the penetration of Huawei into developed countries located in North America, Europe, … to provide scholars with an objective viewpoint to compare different countries with an aim to show the maturation of the firm’s internationalization strategy.