The multinationals from Latin America

Brazilian multinationals are often analyzed as part of the group of “multilatinas” the multinationals that originate in Latin America. Nonetheless there are authors such as Santiso (2007), that include the Iberian multinationals in this group.

The first multilatinas were Argentinean firms that, in the nineteenth century, sought internationalization and aimed at Uruguay, considered the “Switzerland of the South,” on the other side of the River Plate, and Brazil, which was essentially agrarian at the time. In the 1970s, a new internationalization movement materialized, with Brazilian and Argentinean firms venturing abroad. The outcomes, however, were modest.

Now, Latin American countries are in the third wave of internationalization. Existing analyses of multilatinas (Brazilian multinational enterprises (BrMNEs) included) can be classified into two currents. The first of these highlights the relative timidity of these companies' internationalization processes, and, based on a comparative analysis of what occurred in the developed countries and what is happening today in the Asian countries, questions whether the firms and countries meet the basic requirements needed to become truly international (Grosse and Mesquita, 2007; Haar and Price, 2008). The second approach focuses on multilatinas and, recognizing the limits of their activities, seeks to understand their strategies, trajectories, and the factors that justify the process of internationalization. Along these lines, we highlight the work of Álvaro Cuervo-Cazurra (2007) and Santiso (2007).