The Rise of Transnational Corporations from Developing Countries in the Second Half of the 20th Century

Abstract

The article highlights three stages of the formation of multinationals from developing countries. Although first Argentine TNCs appeared at the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries, in the majority of the Global South countries TNCs appeared in the 1960s — 1980s. With the collapse of the bipolar world order, which in many developing countries was accompanied by significant internal political and economic transformations, the second stage of foreign expansion of TNCs from the Global South began. Indeed, in 1990 they accounted for 6 % of global outward foreign direct investment stock, while the figure was 10 % by the end of 2005. We date the beginning of the third stage to the financial and economic crisis of 2007—2009, since multinationals from developing countries as a whole are more successfully overcoming the period of turbulence in the global economy. By the end of 2020, they accounted for 22 % of global outward foreign direct investment stock, and during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis they generally exported more than 50% of the capital. The modern foreign expansion of such TNCs has many reasons, differs greatly from country to country, and often differs slightly from the specifics of Western multinationals. At the same time, initially, “late internationalization” in developing countries had two main vectors — the use of new opportunities for South — South cooperation and overcoming, through the creation of subsidiaries in highly developed countries, the shortcomings of the business environment of “catching up” countries.