---
title: "Multinational corporations research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “multinational corporations” appeared in 1,950 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in management (1,210), economics (414) and finance (146)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/multinational-corporations
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/multinational-corporations.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “multinational corporations” appeared in 1,950 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in management (1,210), economics (414) and finance (146). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “multinational corporations”

Research on “multinational corporations” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “multinational corporations” appeared in 1,950 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in management (1,210), economics (414) and finance (146).
- 215 of them were published in 2025, against 155 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were University of Reading (29), Copenhagen Business School (27) and University of Birmingham (23).
- The journals publishing most of them were Journal of International Business Studies (121), International Business Review (82) and Journal of International Management (68).
- The most-cited of them is “Driving forces and barriers of Industry 4.0: Do multinational and small and medium-sized companies have equal opportunities?” (Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2019), with 1,278 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 94 | 116 | 120 | 93 | 145 | 108 | 139 | 139 | 126 | 130 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 33 | 34 | 37 | 35 | 42 | 46 | 45 | 47 | 50 | 45 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 15 | 8 | 6 | 17 | 20 | 16 | 7 | 27 | 21 | 9 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 6 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 1 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 6 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 6 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 155 | 177 | 185 | 159 | 225 | 194 | 212 | 231 | 215 | 197 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Journal of International Business Studies](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-international-business-studies.md) | 121 |
| 2 | [International Business Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-business-review.md) | 82 |
| 3 | [Journal of International Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-international-management.md) | 68 |
| 4 | [Journal of World Business](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-world-business.md) | 42 |
| 5 | [Management International Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/management-international-review.md) | 38 |
| 6 | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 33 |
| 7 | [Journal of International Business Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-international-business-policy.md) | 33 |
| 8 | [International Tax and Public Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-tax-and-public-finance.md) | 24 |
| 9 | [Journal of International Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-international-economics.md) | 16 |
| 10 | [Journal of Business Ethics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-ethics.md) | 14 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [University of Reading](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-reading.md) | 29 |
| 2 | [Copenhagen Business School](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/copenhagen-business-school.md) | 27 |
| 3 | [University of Birmingham](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-birmingham.md) | 23 |
| 4 | [Vienna University of Economics and Business](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/vienna-university-of-economics-and-business.md) | 23 |
| 5 | [University of Manchester](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-manchester.md) | 22 |
| 6 | [University of Leeds](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-leeds.md) | 20 |
| 7 | [Western University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/western-university.md) | 18 |
| 8 | Ivey Business School | 17 |
| 9 | Northeastern University | 15 |
| 10 | [BI Norwegian Business School](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/bi-norwegian-business-school.md) | 14 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | United Kingdom | 226 |
| 2 | United States | 226 |
| 3 | China | 188 |
| 4 | Canada | 80 |
| 5 | Australia | 67 |
| 6 | France | 67 |
| 7 | Germany | 61 |
| 8 | Italy | 57 |
| 9 | Netherlands | 52 |
| 10 | Hong Kong | 36 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [foreign direct investment](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/foreign-direct-investment.md) | 95 |
| 2 | [emerging markets](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/emerging-markets.md) | 60 |
| 3 | [corporate social responsibility](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-social-responsibility.md) | 58 |
| 4 | [global value chains](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/global-value-chains.md) | 53 |
| 5 | foreign subsidiaries | 47 |
| 6 | institutional theory | 35 |
| 7 | profit shifting | 33 |
| 8 | [tax avoidance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/tax-avoidance.md) | 33 |
| 9 | [corporate governance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/corporate-governance.md) | 30 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,278 | 14.4 | [Driving forces and barriers of Industry 4.0: Do multinational and small and medium-sized companies have equal opportunities?](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.05.021) | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 2019-06-04 | Dóra Horváth, Roland Zsolt Szabó |
| 2 | 1,104 | 12.3 | [Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Scores and Financial Performance of Multilatinas: Moderating Effects of Geographic International Diversification and Financial Slack](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04177-w) | [Journal of Business Ethics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-ethics.md) | 2019-05-16 | Eduardo Alexander Duque Grisales, Javier Aguilera‐Caracuel |
| 3 | 806 | 9.8 | [Barriers and drivers to sustainable business model innovation: Organization design and dynamic capabilities](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2019.101950) | [Long Range Planning](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/long-range-planning.md) | 2019-12-16 | Nancy M. P. Bocken, Thijs Geradts |
| 4 | 719 | 8.9 | [Digital technologies and firm performance: The role of digital organisational culture](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.119962) | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 2020-02-19 | Eva Martínez, Juan‐Gabriel Cegarra‐Navarro, Francisco Javier Alfonso-Ruiz |
| 5 | 716 | 9.3 | [International HRM insights for navigating the COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for future research and practice](https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00335-9) | [Journal of International Business Studies](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-international-business-studies.md) | 2020-06-02 | Paula Caligiuri, Helen De Cieri, Dana Minbaeva et al. |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “multinational corporations”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/multinational-corporations

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-multinational-corporations,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “multinational corporations”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/multinational-corporations}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).