Inward FDI in Estonia: motivational and obstacles/inhibiting factors associated with the MNC’s subsidiary export performance

This study investigates the main inward FDI factors, i.e., motivational factors and obstacles/inhibiting factors associated with the subsidiary's export performance in the host country, Estonia. The study is based on 89 in-depth interviews with the CEOs of subsidiaries of firms in Estonia, using a semi-structured questionnaire. The study concludes that 27 independent variables are important when studying the antecedent factors of the subsidiary's export performance. The study reveals five research streams from the literature review, namely inward FDI, outward FDI, motivational factors of FDI, obstacles/inhibiting factors of FDI, and the subsidiary's export performance. The most prominent research stream is the obstacles/inhibiting factors of FDI and both outward FDI and motivational factors of FDI are also important. Additionally, the study investigates 31 factors, of which 13 are found to be important factors based on SEM fit. In particular, six motivational factors and seven obstacles/inhibiting factors significantly influence the subsidiary's export performance.