The Location Strategies of Multinationals from Emerging Countries in the EU Regions

The paper aims at shedding new light on multinational enterprises from emerging countries (EMNEs) by looking at the determinants of their location decisions and by comparing them with those of multinationals from advanced countries (AMNEs). The model of empirical analysis looks at the location determinants of 19,444 investment projects in the EU-25 regions over the 2003-2008 period. Investment decisions are modelled upon the interaction between firm-specific and location specific conditions. The results suggest that MNEs from different countries of origin search for a diverse set of drivers when investing in the EU regions: there is no  ‘general’ common model for the behaviour of EMNEs. In some instances (i.e. market seeking investments) EMNEs resemble AMNEs, in others all MNEs behave similarly (i.e. specialized spatial agglomeration drivers) and in some other cases (i.e. strategic asset seeking investments) EMNEs do follow a distinctive logic in their location strategies.