ABSTRACT

This chapter provides theoretical support to the analysis of Spanish multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Latin America. International economics attributed MNEs the role of arbitragers of equity capital from countries where its return is low to countries where it is high. International economics also provides a framework for understanding the MNEs international movement of resources that are implied by the partial-equilibrium transaction-cost models. International trade stated that the emergence of MNEs was a function of the distribution of endowments across countries. Theory of the firm and industrial organization seem more appropriate for predicting the behavior of MNEs, since they put firms in the forefront of their analysis. When developing the Ownership-Location-Internalization Model in the 1980s, John Dunning made an eclectic effort to bring together the coinciding points of several theories. The spread of alliances is limited by a series of factors external to the constellation: scarcity of partners, and the diminishing number of partners with desirable capabilities as alliances grow.