Research background: The last four decades have witnessed an upsurge of multi-nationals from emerging markets alongside a narrowed gap in growth prospects between developed and emerging economies. UNCTAD statistics show that FDI flows from emerging economies have gone steady since 1980 and occupied more than one fifth of global FDI stock in 2015. Japan led the reverse FDI trend when it started to invest abroad in the 1960s and 1970s. Two decades later, in the 1980s-1990s, the reverse FDI trend was continued by so-called Asian tigers, then recently by those rapidly-industrializing economies in Southeast Asia as well as China and India in East and South Asia. Purpose of the article: The main goal of this paper is to contribute empirically to the study of the determinants of FDI outflows from emerging economies. Methods: In order to derive empirically testable hypotheses this paper refers to theoretical Knowledge-Capital model developed by Markusen (2002). The model is estimated using the Poisson-Pseudo Maximum Likelihood estimation technique. The specific research hypotheses derived from the theory are verified using a panel dataset of 38 home emerging countries and 134 host countries over the period 2001–2012. Findings & Value added: In this paper, we distinguish between horizontal and vertical reasons for FDI. Our estimation results support the hypothesis that main-stream theory of multinational enterprise can explain FDI flows from emerging economies, implying the significant roles of total market size, skilled-labor abundance, investment cost, trade cost as well as geographical distance between two countries.
PurposeThe main aim of this paper is to verify whether the modern mainstream economic theory of multinational enterprise that explains foreign direct investment (FDI) from developed countries is also able to account for investment decisions of multinational enterprises (MNEs) from emerging economies.Design/methodology/approachUsing Knowledge-And-Physical-Capital (KAPC) model as an analytical framework and Poisson-pseudo maximum likelihood estimation technique, the authors identify determinants of FDI flows from emerging economies. The data set consists of 38 home and 134 host countries during the period 2000–2012. Empirical evidence supports high explanatory power of KAPC model. Further, compared with the earlier Knowledge-Capital (KC) model, results confirm the importance of physical capital.FindingsThe estimation results confirm the hypothesis that mainstream economic theory can explain FDI flows from the emerging economies by highlighting the roles of total market size, skilled-labor abundance, investment and trade costs and geographical distance between two countries.Research limitations/implicationsThis study casts doubt on the alternative way that the KAPC model suggests to distinguish between horizontal and vertical FDI. The argument that horizontal MNE headquarters would be relatively more abundant than vertical MNE headquarters in countries that are abundant in physical capital relative to skilled labor seems reasonable but the idea of variable specification in the estimated equation should be revised.Practical implicationsFirms should be allowed to move their resources freely into and out of specific activities, both internally and internationally across border. To reach that goal, governments of potential host countries can adopt several measures, most importantly remove restrictions on payments, transfers and capital transactions and open previously closed industries to welcome foreign investment. In addition, to improve investment climate in general, governments need to pay attention to enhancing security of property rights, regulating internal taxation (i.e. corporate income tax), guaranteeing adequacy of infrastructure, efficient functioning of finance and labor markets and fighting against corruption.Social implicationsThe location choice of emerging investors set priority on similarity in economic size, geographical and cultural proximity. It is because shared borders or common official languages would reduce information costs and enhance information flows. Also, investors consider horizontal FDI (with motivation to expand market demand) as one of main modes of entry into a foreign market and a substitute for export. Likewise, distance is often understood as an important investment friction.Originality/valueThe outstanding contribution is that the research has uncovered the positive and statistically significant effect of physical capital on FDI activity, which has not been discussed in the earlier KC model. However, at the same time, the study casts doubt on the KAPC model's argument that relative abundance in physical capital to skilled labor between two countries determines FDI types and suggests that this argument and its empirical model specification should be carefully reviewed.
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