AUTHOR
Stolt, Ted; Danielsson, Max

DATE
2004-02-11

DEPARTMENT
Business Administration and Social Sciences / Industrial marketing and e-commerce

SUMMARY
Foreign investors being present on the global investment scene are constantly evaluating the attractiveness of different possible host countries. In the past decade, Sweden has been one of the leading attractors of foreign direct investments. This fact clearly demonstrates the country’s attractiveness on the global investment scene, where foreign investors are constantly seeking new products, markets, and technologies.

Due to the quick growth in the information technology industry within Sweden during the late nineties we found it interesting to investigate what factors influenced multinational companies to establish operations in Sweden, instead of any other country.

To be able to finish the thesis within the time frame given we had to narrow down the purpose of the thesis to four research questions. These research questions covered the parts of human resources, clusters, proximity to international markets and the level of research and development within the nation. When collecting the primary data we conducted interviews with Yokogawa, Hutchison Whampoa / 3 and RSA Security, all situated in the Stockholm region. One major conclusion drawn in this thesis is the importance of available, skilled labor when attracting inward foreign direct investments. Furthermore, we conclude that the existence and glow surrounding Nokia and Ericsson was a very important factor when the case study companies in this thesis chose to establish themselves on the Swedish market.

ISSN 1404-5508 / ISRN LTU-SHU-EX--04/075--SE / NR 2004:075