International Corporate Responsibility Series

Volume 2, 2005

Perspectives On International Corporate Responsibility

Foreign Investment in the Mena Regions
Analyzing Nontraditional Determinants

Although there is substantial literature examining the flow of foreign investments into various regions of the world, there is still a lack of research about joint ventures and foreign investment activities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). One objective of this paper is to remedy this neglect and extend previous empirical work by focusing on foreign investments in the MENA region. The second objective is to focus on non-traditional determinants that have tended to be overlooked or underestimated in previous research. The increasing globalization has led to a reconfiguration of the ways in which multinationals pursue various types of foreign investments, and changed the motives for and the determinants of FDI. This has prompted some to suggest that non traditional determinants have become more important. In view of that, the paper will focus on factors such as governance, legal environment, and economic freedom and examine their impact on foreign investment activities in the MENA region.