Foreign Direct Investment in Non-Metropolitian Norway. An Analysis of Strategies, Objectives and Autonomy

The internationalisation of the western economy in recent years implies cross-border investments and an increasing number of firms with production in more than one country. The exploitation of natural resources has traditionally been the main reason why foreign firms have been investing in non-metropolitan Norway. This article discusses whether this still is the case, or whether other objectives, such as access to markets or strategical motives, are becoming more important. This article also analyses location choices and investment strategies of foreign firms, and to what extent these are affected by firms' objective for investing. The second part of the article discusses the degree of autonomy of foreign owned plants in non-metropolitan Norway. Does foreign ownership in general means a low degree of autonomy for the national plants or is the picture more differentiated? Our study finds that autonomy varies between plants, and the final part of article points to internal and external factors which may explain why some plants have a more autonomous position than others.