| Abstract : | Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is considered as a very powerful investment tool for economically developed and less developed countries. Developing countries, emerging economies and countries in transition have come increasingly to see FDI as a source of economic growth and development. The motivation of such economies to attract FDI is connected with the desire of expanding and internationalizing to the world and to contribute to the rise of domestic income and employment rate, to technology transfer and diffusion of knowledge and last to social development. The global market of FDI has undergone significant changes the last decade, showing the increasingly important role of multinational enterprises from developing countries to the rise of foreign direct investment from such economies. Foreign direct investment has grown at a phenomenal rate since the late 1990s, and the world market for it has become more competitive. Developing countries are becoming increasingly attractive investment destinations, but also popular investors to other countries. The participation of developing economies to outward FDI has risen significantly the last years, as in 2000 the share of developing countries in the world outward FDI stock was at 7%, in 2007 the share was at 12%, in 2010 the share was at 27% and in the latest recorded year, at 2014, the share had reached the tremendous rate of 36%. The share of multinational enterprises from developing countries to the total world outward FDI stock increased from 10% the year of 2003 to 40% the year of 2012 and since then it is at its highest levels. Furthermore, the majority of outward FDI from developing countries is concentrated to other developing countries, but the 28% of outward FDI is concentrated to developed economy targets and the main type of FDI used is cross-boarder Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As). Among all developing countries, China has become the leading investor of foreign direct investment abroad and the third biggest foreign investor worldwide. The theme of the present thesis is foreign direct investment from developing countries to developed ones. Inside the thesis there will be a thorough presentation of theoretical and empirical analysis of foreign direct investment as a choice of expansion of multinational enterprises from developing countries to developed ones, a presentation of the motives and the effects of FDI of such countries, the recent trends of FDI and a presentation of the case of China, as a perfect example of foreign direct investment from developing economies to developed economies. The structure of the thesis is the following. In the second chapter of the thesis, there is presented the theoretical background of FDI. More specifically, there are mentioned the definition of foreign direct investment and the facts that consider a firm multinational. In addition, the second chapter includes the motives and the types of FDI according to established bibliography and the impact of foreign direct investment to the country of origin and the host country. In the third chapter of the present paper there is an extended presentation of the recent trends and the characteristics of foreign direct investment using mostly the annual reports of United Nations Conference on Trade And Development (UNCTAD). This chapter offers an analysis about the growth of FDI the period 2005-2014 in the countries of origin and the host countries, about the type of expansion abroad that is used, in what sectors and industries do they appear and how these trends of FDI affect the expansion decisions of such countries. However, emphasis is given to developing countries about their actions and their choices either in inward or outward FDI. Several examples of firms, that choose to invest using FDI as an investment tool, are given throughout this chapter and the presentation of FDI trends is supported with several important and informative figures and tables. To continue with the fourth chapter of the paper, we introduce the motives and the impacts of FDI from developing economies and we separate this chapter into two subsections, to the theoretical analysis and to the empirical analysis, using circumstantial research papers about this theme. As long as the theoretical analysis is concerned, it is presented firstly, the mode of expansion of multinational firms from developing countries and secondly the competitive advantages and the effects of technological spillovers on FDI investment decisions. In the second subsection of this chapter, through specific empirical researches we present the results that indicate the home country determinants of outward FDI in developing and transition economies and the importance of technology sourcing factor and technology spillovers for multinational firms. Last, after analyzing the empirical literature about the home market determinants of developing countries in general, the focus will be set on China and the determinants of Chinese outward foreign direct investment and present three case-studies of three leading Chinese firms, TCL, BOE and Lenovo.
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