This paper investigates the determinants of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of British multinational firms in the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association members across 2009–2019 using Bayesian model averaging. We find evidence that supports the existence and dynamic behavior of the East–West structure of FDI between three groups of countries: core-EU, Central and Eastern European economies (CEE), and the Nordics. Further, we document the importance of relative market size, urbanization, the rule of law in attaining horizontal FDI in the core-EU economies. In turn, infrastructure spending and enhanced political stability are the most important drivers for FDI in CEE (post-2000 accession). Finally, our results highlight the negative effects of the Eurozone crisis and Brexit anticipation on British OFDI activity in the region. The findings remain robust when accounting for potential MNE profit shifting to partners such as Ireland, Luxembourg, and alike.

The adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by 166 countries since 2004 has been a major achievement in the international standardization of accounting regulations. The present paper draws on the Eclectic Paradigm as the analytical framework to investigate the effects of IFRS adoption on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. The analysis is conducted based on panel data from 22 Middle Eastern and North African economies (MENA) between 1996 and 2019. The findings indicate that FDI inflows are positively associated with IFRS, and countries implementing the accounting standards receive a higher increase in FDI inflows. Furthermore, the results show that institutional quality plays an important role in attracting FDI. These results remain robust using lag and time-fixed effect estimation methods. The findings have several implications for policymakers.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) and multinational activities have been researched for over 40 years. This is because global FDI flows have increased from $49.8 billion in 1987 to $1.39 trillion in 2019 (UNCTAD, 2020a). The total annual inward FDI stock was nearly $31.5 trillion, which almost triples the world's total volume of international trade (World Trade Organization, 2019). With the integration of international markets since the mid-1980s, world FDI flows have been growing stronger than trade and world gross domestic product (GDP), making inward and outward FDI stocks indicative factors over how well a country is integrated into the global economy. Hence, the bulk of developing and least-developed countries have shifted from internal industrialization strategies to FDI-supported economic development. This is because inward FDI