Las grandes empresas extranjeras en la Argentina: características y transformaciones entre 1913 y 1960

From a Business History approach, the article examines the historical role of multinational firms and its characteristics in Argentina. Based on a new database of foreign companies in Argentina (Foreign Companies in Argentina Database - FCAD), we identify the organizational forms, the sectoral distribution, the entry strategies and investment decisions of the top-100 foreign companies since the outbreak of the First World War to a new boom of FDI in the late 1950s. The study shows that the main drivers of FDI until World War II were the competitive advantages based on intangible assets, the exclusive possession of managerial skills and differential access to markets and resources; the familiarity between the country of origin and the host economy and also a favorable political and legal environment to FDI.