Distinctive determinant factors of Spanish foreign direct investment in Latin America

This paper is based on an empirical study of 103 Spanish multinational companies that have carried out foreign direct investment (FDI) and analyses to what extent the decision to invest in Latin America responds to factors different from those involved in the decision to invest in other destinations. Rooted in the revised eclectic paradigm of Dunning [Dunning, J. H. (1988). The eclectic paradigm of international production: A restatement and some possible extensions, Journal of International Business Studies, 19: 1–31; Dunning, J. H. (1997). Alliance capitalism and global business. New York: Routledge], the research framework includes three types of factors in a disaggregated way: ownership, internalization and location factors. The results show that, indeed, Spanish FDI in Latin America presents some distinctive features within each group of factors, thus indicating cultural affinity as the most important driver for the selection of this destination.