What Are They Seeking Next?

Sammanfattning: This thesis investigates the dynamics between firms’ shifting motives for engaging in foreign direct investments (FDIs) and the experiential knowledge acquired from increased experience and establishment in foreign markets. An embedded case study was performed on the multinational company Duni Group, drawing upon insights from semi-structured interviews with representatives from the case company. Three key findings emerged through a flexible pattern-matching analysis. Firstly, the analysis indicated that the case company had multiple motives for engaging in FDIs simultaneously; however, these motives appeared to some extent, to be of varying significance for each location. Secondly, it was found that these motives have altered over the years with the company’s accumulated experience and increased establishment in foreign markets and that this shift may be justified by the knowledge gained through this experience. Lastly, the analysis revealed that external factors influencing the business environment had impacted the shift in motives and have a great potential to shape the direction of the case company’s future FDIs. Conclusively, it is acknowledged that future research should encompass a cross-disciplinary stance in order to more accurately capture all factors shifting the motives for FDI as well as potentially discovering supplementary motives for engaging in FDI: seeking legitimacy.