Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows are increasingly global, diverse, and knowledge intensive. However, existing research predominantly focuses on those involving advanced and leading emerging economies and large multinational enterprises (MNEs), overlooking FDI flows to and from the more diverse economies of the Global South and the role of smaller MNEs, which also significantly impact technological advancement in the South. This oversight also limits the understanding of the range of contextual factors influencing FDI flows and MNE operations, as the Global South is effectively reduced to a few more technologically advanced and globally connected sites. While many aspects of the emergence of such advanced sites in cities with abundant pools of skilled labour are well researched, no established research field has systematically and comprehensively explored how technologically less advanced and less resource-endowed cities, on the whole, engage in the transformations that turn them into investment hubs.

This thesis aims to fill this gap by examining, first, what drives diverse FDI flows to emerging economies and, second, Medellín’s rise as a destination for MNEs in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. It employs mixed methods to link an analysis of macrolevel country attractiveness and local explorations of the impact of MNE activities and the role of global policy and planning trends in urban development efforts. It provides a multiple-perspective understanding of how cities in emerging economies can enter the global competition for FDI by creating conditions that attract knowledge-intensive MNE activities. Informed by Medellín’s transformation, this study presents a conceptual model outlining general categories of strategic activity crucial to the evolution of emerging cities into investment hubs. The model enhances explanatory clarity regarding key elements of the process and offers a framework for exploring city-specific strategies fostering similar transformations in emerging economies.