Making sense of foreign direct investment: Towards a strong structuration model of MNE decision-making

Abstract

Despite the centrality of FDI phenomena in IB research, we still have a limited understanding of the underlying managerial activities and interactions that generate FDI decisions. Extant theories of FDI focus on determining the necessary conditions for FDI to occur, while neglecting the actual decision process and the role of managers in shaping the FDI outcome. To address this lacuna in the literature, a qualitative multiple case study collected data through in-depth narrative interviews with multiple participants in ten MNEs to retrospectively study how the FDI decision process unfolded in each case. The thesis provides a detailed understanding of the FDI decision process in MNEs. Such perspective entails a shift from conceiving FDI as "a point-of-time 'go/no-go' decision" to a process view in which MNE actors work together in time to reach a decision. As such, the thesis brings a focus on the activities and interactions performed by actors during the FDI decision process. Based on the research findings, the thesis contributes to the IB literature by providing further insights into the processes, activities, and interactions which lead to FDI decisions. A strong structuration framework is proposed to explain the different trajectories that an FDI decision can take in different MNEs through the interrelations of three elements: (1) external structures which constitute the external conditions of actors' actions; (2) MNE's meaning structures which represent the firm's institutionalized practices; (3) internal structures which consist of actors' general dispositions and their conjuncturally-specific knowledge of the terrain in which action unfolds. The interrelations between these elements at a certain conjuncture shape actors' activities and the way they relate to their MNE's meaning structures leading them to follow or depart from their MNE's institutionalized practices. Two FDI decision trajectory types were identified; an induced and an autonomous trajectory, within each, the structures were configured in different ways and the actions and interactions performed by actors were also different. Building on these findings, the thesis provides several theoretical and practical implications to the IB literature and MNE managers and policy makers.