Soft Power in Emerging Economies: An exploratory analysis of the effects on Outward FDI.

By conceptualizing Soft Power, this research aims to identify the relationship between the indicators of Soft Power and the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) within the framework of emerging economies supported by quantitative data. This work contributes to the body of knowledge in two ways. To begin, our paper departs from previous research in terms of data sources and indicators used to assess Soft Power; we opted for the construction of a dataset covering 48 emerging economies from 2016 to 2019 including 12 indicators; This dataset will allow a more detailed comparison among economies and regions engaged; it can be updated over time, adding/removing countries or indicators. Second, we propose a PLS-SEM approach to identify the relationship between Soft Power Indicators and OFDI.