FDI Motives and Location Decisions of Emerging Country Business Groups: Entry Mode, Ownership and Institutional Environment

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to introduce and explain our understanding of the internationalization process of emerging country business groups (EBGs) according to the entry mode choice, ownership structure, and formal institutional environment of the host country. The internationalization models of Dunning and Mathews are integrated with the institutional environment in the internationalization process of EBGs because they are unable to explain the rise of EBGs alone. Content analysis is used to investigate the internationalization strategies of EBGs. The findings of this study revealed three categories of FDI motives: main motives (market-seeking and strategic asset-seeking), sector-based motives (efficiency-seeking and resource-seeking), and facilitative motives (relational asset-seeking). FDI motives, entry mode, ownership, formal institutional environment, and location decisions are investigated together in the context of emerging country dynamics. This exploratory study contributes to the expanding global research on EBGs based on a suggested framework that can provide novel insights regarding the internationalization processes of EBGs.