Culture

Behaviours of Multinational Corporations to engage in International Business Administration and Operations in Developing Countries: The Case of the Middle East and North Africa Region

By Omar Al-Habash Student ID: 0621410/3

Paper submitted for the BBS Doctoral Symposium 23rd & 24th March 2009

Business School Brunel University

1. Abstract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) might bring positive effects such as market access, technology, capital, and skills to developing countries. Therefore, developing country governments are increasingly searching for best-practice policies to attract more FDI inflows. In this context, this research aims to investigate the determinant factors of the investment mechanism and behaviour of the Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in developing countries in order to give a clue on how governments should readjust their policies towards FDI. That will be done through conducting an empirical research on the investment behaviour of UK’s MNCs in a number of Middle East and North Africa countries. Keywords: Multinational Corporations (MNCs); Foreign Direct Investment (FDI); Investment behaviour; Developing countries 2. Statement of Problem Developing countries generally suffer from low economic growth rates, out of date technology, lack of capital, high unemployment rate, poor managerial skills, and low standard of living.

One of the aspects that will help developing countries in accelerating or sustaining the pace of their economic and social development is to have good quality infrastructure. Therefore, developing countries require urgent investments aimed to strengthen the infrastructure industries and services in areas such as water, electricity, telecommunications, and transport. Although governments, the private sector and other stakeholders in these countries are contributing in the infrastructure’s investments, the amount of investments needed is still far more exceeding their 1

contribution. According to UNCTAD (2008),...