Emerging Markets Global Players

Previously housed under the Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) Initiative at Columbia University, the research group and its partners have resumed meetings and will be included in the Cañizares Center for Emerging Markets activities, going forward. A special thank you to Lisa Sachs, director of CCSI.

A major development in the global foreign direct investment (FDI) market over recent years has been the rapid rise of multinational enterprises (MNEs) from emerging markets. To further its mission, CCSI aims to explore the opportunities and challenges these new players present for sustainable development in their home countries, host countries, and beyond.

The first step is to develop and strengthen empirical research on emerging-market MNEs and establish a sound basis for understanding and discussing the role of those entities in the world economy by identifying the major players and their salient features and drivers. This is essential because many of these new players are less well known than their developed-country counterparts. And while they may not be global leaders in terms of size, they can be extremely significant for their home countries and regions. The second step is to focus more closely on understanding and improving the relationship between emerging-market MNEs and sustainable development including, for example, the impacts of these investors on environmental and labor standards in host countries.

Among its activities, the Emerging Market Global Players (EMGP) project, a collaborative effort led by CCSI, brings together researchers on FDI from leading institutions in emerging markets to gather original data from company surveys and additional research and to produce annual reports based on their findings. Those EMGP reports identify the top multinationals from each of a number of emerging markets, provide detailed information on the key features of the firms’ activities abroad, and discuss other issues, including the underlying policy context influencing outward investment from those emerging markets and the impact of the MNEs on sustainable development.

Each report is posted on this website as well as on the website of the partner institution in the relevant country. The information in the reports, including the rankings by foreign assets, will be of interest to researchers, bankers, investors, and the media, as well as to multinational firms in many countries.

Since 2022, EMGP has been part of the Cañizares Center for Emerging Markets (EMC²) a SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. Founded in 2010, EMC² provides thought leadership on the role of emerging markets — and emerging market multinationals — in the global economy. The Institute brings together preeminent practitioners and academics from around the world to develop the next generation of global business leaders and create the premier research center on the role of emerging markets in the global economy. Find more about EMC²’s research and the EMC² Conference.