Foreign direct investments as the driver of performance for companies from emerging markets

Resumo

This doctoral thesis entitled “Foreign direct investments as the driver of performance for companies from emerging markets” aimed to analyze the phenomenon of foreign direct investments (FDI) and its impact on firm performance in the context or developing countries using firm-level data from Russian public companies from 2004 to 2014. The thesis is composed of five chapters, each of them dealing with different aspect of FDI effect to firm results. Chapter 1 is introductory and describes the relevance of the topic, defines the purpose, main research questions, novelty and structure of the thesis. Chapter 2 examines the direct effect of inward FDI on firms’ financial results and analyses whether foreign ownership plays the enhancing role in the company performance in frame of special external conditions – economic downturn. Chapter 3 addresses the issue of FDI as one of the moderating factors of the link between exports and performance. Chapter 4 concentrates on discovering the internal drivers which facilitate (or mediate) a positive impact of FDI on companies’ performance. Conclusions are drawn in Chapter 5. Findings indicate the positive impact of foreign ownership on limiting the negative effect of the recession on company performance. In addition, the results support the positive impact of foreign ownership on the link between exports and firms’ performance and underline the important role of foreign ownership as a channel for finance and technologies. Finally, outcomes indicate that dynamic capabilities fully mediate the process of FDI transformation into firm’s results.