Foreign direct investment by multinational corporations in emerging economies: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis

Ahmed Nazzal, Maria-Victòria Sánchez-Rebull and Angels Niñerola

International Journal of Emerging Markets, 2023, vol. 20, issue 13, 244-269

Abstract: Purpose - This study introduces a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the foreign direct investment (FDI) literature by multinational corporations (MNCs) focusing on emerging economies to identify the most influential authors, journals and articles in FDI research and reveals the fields' conceptual and intellectual structures. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach - The study analyzed 533 articles published between 1974 and 2020 in 226 academic journals indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases. We used theRlanguage for statistical computing to map author collaboration, co-word and develop a conceptual and intellectual map of the field. Findings - The results show that, although the FDI literature has many authors, few dominate the field. TheInternational Business Review(IBR) andInternational Journal of Emerging Markets(IJoEM) are the main sources of the publications. Moreover, bibliometric laws show that our dataset follows the Lotka law of scientific productivity and Bradford law of scattering, identifying the core journals. Finally, FDI by MNCs in emerging economies research is divided into four sub-research themes related to (1) FDI determinants, (2) entry mode, (3) MNCs and FDI performance and (4) the internationalization process. Originality/value - The current article provides several starting points for practitioners and researchers investigating FDI. It contributes to broadening the vision of the field and offers recommendations for future studies.

Keywords: MNC; FDI; Emerging economies; Multinational corporations; Internationalization; Bibliometrix; Bibliometric analysis; Conceptual structure map; Intellectual theme (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ijoemp:ijoem-12-2021-1878

DOI: 10.1108/IJOEM-12-2021-1878

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