Emerging countries’ country-specific advantages (CSAs) and competitiveness of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs)

Purpose A significant stream of literature focuses on host countries’ locations when explaining why firms internalize some of their activities in specific countries. At first glance, home location schemes and specificities seem to have attracted less attention in the scientific community. The purpose of this contribution is to provide a literature review linked to the specific issue of emerging countries’ country-specific advantages and the competitiveness of emerging market multinational enterprises. Design/methodology/approach The approach is to present the main theoretical developments related to the role of home countries in the internationalization process of domestic firms in general and as far as the home context of emerging countries is concerned. Findings A rigorous analysis of the literature shows that theoretical developments and empirical studies on international business do refer explicitly or at least implicitly to the role of home countries in the international expansion of firms. Originality/value The value of this review is to develop the main streams of the literature and to serve as a basis for the other contributions published in this area.