Location decision-making processes of internationalising firms: a multiple case study investigation

Research into the location decision of Australian international firms was primarily directed toward investigating motivations of Australian investors for setting up their foreign direct investments (FDI) in specific foreign countries. Nevertheless, the strategic decision-making process concerning the selection of a beneficial foreign country for either Australian or Western Australian international operations has been neglected in the existing literature; hence, an evident and significant gap was identified. Therefore, the current exploratory investigation used an interpretive paradigm to examine ‘how do Western Australian internationalising firms arrive at a beneficial foreign location choice for their international operations and hence attain successful international expansion. As an attempt to provide rich and deep insights into managerial actions and procedures, as well as critical success factors, that should be considered in effective international location decision-making process to attain a beneficial foreign location choice, five empirical comparative in-depth case studies excluding a pilot case study were purposefully selected from among sixteen potential Western Australian firms which established manufacturing and service operations abroad. Furthermore, seven international location decision-making processes were examined within these five cases through relying on several data sources: in-depth face to face interviews, short telephone and follow-up interviews and questionnaire instrument as primary data sources besides field notes, documents review when available and internet sources as secondary data sources. Two main stages of analysis were undertaken in the current research, namely, within and cross-case analyses.