The paper explores the factors driving OFDI by EMNEs and the patterns of knowledge transfer, as there are still some gaps in the understanding of these two aspects, by examining six cases of MNEs from three of the BRICS' economies (India, China, and South Africa). It mainly employs descriptive data for a period of about ten years in each case which were gathered from secondary sources including EMNEs' annual financial reports, press releases, websites, and other sources. It found that there are complex aspects of OFDI by EMNEs which cannot be explained by existing FDI theories. A theoretical model that integrates both 'latecomer strategies for catch up' and the 'traditional FDI' models is necessary to fully understand these aspects. The contribution of this paper is three fold: (i) it attempts to identify and distinguish the factors driving OFDI and patterns of knowledge transfer of OFDI from EMNEs and shows how they differ from DMNEs; (ii) it highlights some aspects of OFDI by EMNEs such as expansion into other Southern countries outside their respective region and the North, noninfrastructure/natural resources sectors, different patterns of technology and knowledge transfer in the South and North respectively, which adds to the existing OFDI literature; (iii) by applying grounded and appreciative approaches, it draws some lessons on how best to undertake further research on the difference of OFDI between EMNEs and DMNEs.