Introducing Investment Promotion: A Marketing Approach to Attracting Foreign Direct Investment

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of investment promotion, a form of marketing used by national governments to attract foreign investments into their country. While it is not a new concept, it barely makes it to academic literature. The paper brings investment promotion to the forefront for the purpose of creating a research interest in this topic and also contributes to the development of literature. It attempts to integrate investment promotion activities into already established marketing models and frameworks and set a marketing research agenda on the topic. Since attracting foreign investment is a policy and country situation issue, this paper will support and serve as a reference for governments as they design foreign investment policies and improve the attractiveness of their country as an investment destination using marketing tools. The paper first discusses the influence of marketing on investment promotion and how investors should be viewed as consumers who have needs to be satisfied. Various frameworks and concepts like the consumer decision-making process, market segmentation and marketing communications mix are discussed to show how they can be applied in investment promotion. The application of marketing concepts and theories has been beneficial in the business world, and this paper argues that there are potential benefits for countries who decide to apply the same concept and theories to attract investors.

Examining foreign direct investment determinants of tourism industry in Oman and Egypt: The moderating role of investment environment

“…The second aspect is related to the pre-investment facilities such as country promotion and availability of attractive projects (Abamu, 2019). In this vein, it is strongly important for countries to promote their advantages internationally.…”

“…Additionally, Anderson and Sutherland (2015) reported a positive and significant relationship between investment promotion and FDI location decisions. In this regard, Abamu (2019) asserted that investment facilitation such as investment promotion by the host country to the foreign investors has a great potential to enhance the FDI attractiveness of that country. Moreover, it is argued that even though the country might have a favourable business environment, the investors may not invest in the country due to information asymmetry issues that is investors are lacking sufficient information about that country (Trník, 2007).…”

“…However, literature on FDI determinates are still limited when it comes to the integrative role of the business environment of the host country (Dumludag, 2009), firm‐specific motives of (Dunning, 1993), and the moderating effect of investment environment (Abamu, 2019; Villaverde & Maza, 2015). In addition, the majority of FDI determinants literatures focused mainly on the investors' perception and paid little attention to opinion of other stakeholders such as industry experts and decision‐makers.…”

“…That is, to what extent the view of the expert and decision‐makers is matching the view of the real investors. Moreover, the present study aims to contribute to the current literature through investigating the moderating role of investment environment factors such as investment promotion, investment incentives hassle costs, social amenities and after‐investment services, political, economic and social stability between business environment and the FDI attractiveness in the tourism and hospitality industry (Abamu, 2019; Hamilton & Webster, 2018; Villaverde & Maza, 2015). In addition, the present study aims to expand the current literature on FDI determinants by conducting a comparative study between Oman and Egypt.…”

Determining Interrelationship Between Factors Impacting Foreign Direct Investment in Tourism: An ISM-based Approach

“…Most studies were done in this direction, concentrating on finding causality between fiscal deficits on economic factors, but none has drawn relationships that correspond to the government’s marketing-linked expenditure (Nimani, 2013). The kind of transitivity observed in the present study points towards factors that mediate the relationship between economic factors and government marketing expenditure (Abamu, 2019; Guimén, 2009; Santos, 2017).…”