Brief Reflections on the Development of the FDI Theory

In this essay, we intend to review the theory of the FDI, since its origins to the present days, focusing on its corner stones. We present the FDI theory through the lens of the strategic management and try to bring to the forefront the main contributions to this framework. At the same time, we underline the scholars’ frequent return to the “springs†of the FDI theory, either those generated by Hymer or the internalization theory or the OLI paradigm, in order to consolidate the theoretical FDI construction.