What does it matter about the home countries of emerging multinationals?

The recent emergence of new multinational enterprises from developing countries (EMNE) is challenging some basic pillars of the theory of the firm' internationalization and provides new insights for development studies. In this paper we test empirically what aspects at the home country level may facilitate the promotion and success of EMNE that permits the generation of firms' specific advantages in developing contexts. Their identification would complement the explanation of the EMNE phenomena from a country perspective, underlying that institutions and technology are key fields for the definition of policy implications and actions. In the empirical analysis, we use panel data for both developed and developing economies in the period 1996-2009 to capture the international differences and the dynamics in a cross-country study. From a perspective of home national systems of innovation, our contribution shows that the presence of some factors at national level are critical in the definition of a capabilities' accumulation process that enhances the generation of EMNE, and what are the distinctive features in the case of developing economies.