Emerging Multinationals and Outward FDI Development : Case of Poland

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the Polish outward foreign direct investments (OFDIs) with special attention on the growing interest of many Polish companies to expand abroad utilizing equity-based modes of entry. The paper shows that the increase of Polish OFDI in recent years reflects the growing ability and willingness of Polish companies to expand mainly to European markets. It is also observed that the emerging Polish multinationals primarily expand to regional markets of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe as well as Germany. The major motivation for the expansion was to increase market power and access to the market. The current economic crisis resulted in a deceleration of OFDI flows. However, in the case of Polish companies, the deceleration is not as high as one might expect and in 2008 and 2009, Polish companies made a relatively high number of cross-border deals. The paper also analyzes three cases of companies built from scratch in the transition period that now belong to the group of emerging Polish multinationals. When analyzing these cases, it can be seen that there were two stages in their development: during the first stage (approximately one decade), these companies focused on the development of their position in their home market; after they acquired a relatively strong position in the home market, they decided to expand abroad. Their first choice when expanding abroad was to build a strong position in regional markets of the Central and East European countries