Taking stock of foreign divestment: Insights and recommendations from three decades of contemporary literature

•Systematic review using content analysis of empirical literature exclusively focusing on foreign divestments by MNEs.•Lack of uniformity in the choice of empirical design and different moderation effects that have been examined makes it difficult to draw any conclusions.•Several studies lack information on exit rate and home/host country location which increases the difficulty in interpreting the results.•Linear as well as non-linear relationships observed for some key variables. Despite garnering an increasing amount of scholarly attention in the past three decades, the literature on foreign divestment is characterised by inconsistent theoretical arguments and mixed findings. In the present paper we review 53 articles on foreign divestment using the content analysis technique. Our aim is to compare and consolidate the main findings of the 53 articles, and provide suggestions for future research. The review suggests that there are several overlapping arguments provided by different theoretical frameworks. We also observed a great degree of discrepancy in the empirical design, particularly concerning the operationalisation of variables, sample sizes, and sample location. Moreover, we identified that there is a dearth of literature on exit modes, exit barriers, and post-divestment strategies. We conclude by providing recommendations and proposing a framework for future research.