MNEs from emerging markets: a review of the current literature through “bibliographic coupling” and social network analysis Francisco Garc  ıa-Lillo, Enrique Claver, Bartolom e Marco-Lajara, Pedro Seva-Larrosa and Lorena Ruiz-Fern andez Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain Abstract Purpose – In recent years, author and document citation and co-citation analyses have often been applied to map the “intellectual structure” of different scientific fields, including management and international business. However, the technique of bibliographic coupling between scientific documents, which seeks to identify active research fronts in a scientific field or discipline, has been less commonly used. This study utilized this technique to identify and visualize the research fronts in the context of papers on emerging markets multinational enterprises (EM-MNEs) recently published in a wide variety of journals. The aim is not only to complement and expand the results obtained in prior studies that have used other types of systematization, such as qualitative content analysis methodology but also to propose avenues for future research. Design/methodology/approach – The primary databases utilized to carry out the present research work – both comprised in the Web of Science™ (WoS) Core Collection – were: the Social Sciences Citation Index® (SCI) developed by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and the Emerging Sources Citation Index. A total of 496 “peer-reviewed journal articles” published between 2014 and December 30, 2019 were retrieved. With regards to the methodology, bibliometric methods were utilized, as well as social network analysis (SNA). Findings – Particularly, the analytical techniques employed – adopting a “quantitative” method of a deductive character – allowed the identification of the most active research “fronts” in international research related to the topic under analysis: the phenomenon of EM-MNEs. Research limitations/implications – The present study has several limitations resulting from the utilization of bibliometric methods applied in the analyses performed. Originality/value – The authors believe that this research is of value for future researchers since it allows the identification of research “fronts,” which shape the vanguard of knowledge and reveal current trends and future directions in the area under examination. Keywords Emerging market multinationals enterprises (EM-MNEs), Bibliometrics, Bibliographic coupling analysis (BCA), Social network analysis (SNA) Paper type Research paper Introduction It is well known that, during the last two decades [1], the phenomenon of the internationalization of emerging-market multinational enterprises (EM-MNEs) and their international expansion – mainly through foreign direct investment (FDI) and, particularly, by means of cross-border acquisitions of firms as a way to gain access to critical resources, to promote strategic renovation or to create shareholders value (Aybar and Ficici, 2009; Buckley et al., 2016a, 2016b; Elia and Santangelo, 2017; Gubbi et al., 2010; Gubbi and Elango, 2016; He et al., 2019; Luo and Wang, 2012; Madhok and Keyhani, 2012; Paul and Mas, 2019; Rui and Yip, 2008; Yang and Deng, 2017; among others) – has caught the attention of many scholars and researchers (Alon et al., 2018; Bhasin and Paul, 2016; Paul and S anchez-Morcillo, 2019). It has even led to the rethinking and redevelop of models and theories about the internationalization of these EM-MNEs (e.g. Casson and Wadeson, 2018; Hennart, 2012; Emerging markets multinational enterprises The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1746-8809.htm Received 3 March 2019 Revised 7 September 2019 3 December 2019 20 May 2020 12 August 2020 Accepted 13 August 2020 International Journal of Emerging Markets © Emerald Publishing Limited 1746-8809 DOI 10.1108/IJOEM-03-2019-0170