ABSTRACT
The extent of the process of internationalisation and the important role that multinational companies have played in it have awakened a growing analytical interest regarding the behaviour of this type of agent. This has given rise to the creation of several hypotheses — largely complementing each other — which, though not constituting a complete theory, enable empirical analysis to focus on those internal and external elements which impinge on their decisions on foreign investment, and, stemming from this, on the makeup of the activities of their subsidiaries in the countries where they are located.
