New multinacional enterprisesinternationalization modes and learning abroad effects

Abstract

This thesis is composed by three researches. The first one shows that some factors at the home country level are crucial for the process of capabilities accumulation that encourages the generation of multinational enterprises. The second one, proposes a theoretical proposal which analyzes the chosen mode of FDI- Greenfield FDI or Mergers and Acquisitions(M&A)- based on the advance level of the National System of Innovation and the presence of multinational enterprises in the home country. The empirical evidence of this proposal confirms that firms will use M&A when those firms come from a weak home country and the main motives in the internationalization process is knowledge seeking. Finally, the third research analyses the effects of learning abroad by investment over the innovative outputs and productivity in a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms.