Emerging market mne cross-border acquisition: evidence of multilatinas

Abstract

This study is about the investment of emerging economies, such as multilatinas, which recently increased their participation in the global market. Multilatinas, or Latin American Firms (LAFs), have used Cross-Border Acquisitions (CBAs) as a form of internationalization, following the practice of multinational companies (MNCs) (BUCKLEY; ELIA; KAFOUROS, 2014; CASANOVA; KASSUM, 2013; DENG; YANG, 2015; MALHOTRA; LIN; FARRELL, 2016) and through them reached leadership positions in their sectors. A bibliometric study was developed to help us to answer the question about theoretical gaps. In the first step, a systematic review was carried out in different databases, searching all articles on Multilatinas and classifying them by topics. Finally, a content analysis of the articles was carried out, to identify gaps in future research. With an article of theoretical discussion, we sought to identify the degree of application of the gradualist theory by Multilatina companies in their internationalization process. In the first part, the history of Multilatinas is summarized and it is specified which firms are considered within this group. In the next step, we approach the gradualist theory, its parameters, and general concepts. Finally, we show the internationalization process of Multilatinas. It was concluded that this approach can be used to study multilatinas, but we must keep in mind that these companies are not as similar as we think. There are old companies (latecomers), which were gradually internationalized, but also a group of new companies (newcomers), which internationalized in a short time. Besides an empirical study, evidence was provided on business groups, diversification, and state ownership in Latin America and their influence on the degree of ownership in CBAs. Several previous studies have focused on the study of property determinants in CBAs for emerging markets (GAMA et al., 2016; KHANNA, TARUN; YAFEH, 2015; PINTO et al., 2017).