Unfavorable Business Environment and Foreign Direct Investment Activities of Turkish Manufacturing Firms

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the influence of the home country’s unfavorable business environment on the internationalization of Turkish manufacturing firms (TMFs) via FDI. This study uses cross-sectional survey data from a sample 94 TMFs that have equity investment in 28 countries since the mid 1980s. The research results indicate that utility costs, unstable exchange rates, high inflation rate and political instability are considered to be the most important push motives of TMFs. While the relative importance of push motives (i.e., unfavorable business environment) vary with respect to the sampled firm’s ages and, to some extent, their sizes; the motives do not vary based on TMFs’ subsector.FDI from Developing Countries, Turkish FDI Firms, Push Motives of FDI Firms