International Divestment as an Emergent Strategy - Australian Managerial Attitudes and Influential Factors

This is a study on the nature and underlying features involved in making international divestment. It identifies key managerial attitudes and influential factors affecting MNEs in their decision to divest FDI. The study draws from key principles and concepts on strategy and strategic decision-making in general and the theories of strategic choice, emergent strategy, industrial organization theory, and the resource-based views of strategy in particular, to put forth a unifying conceptual framework. Based on the findings from a survey of listed Australian MNEs, the study concludes that the making of international divestment is an emergent strategic choice, and that MNE propensity to make international divestment is driven significantly by cross-border management factors, financial factors and strategic factors. Market factors and government factors were found to be less significant in influencing MNE decision to divest FDI. The results also show that MNE managerial attitudes towards international divestment, in terms of its willingness and state of readiness to make international divestment, have a strong impact on its propensity to make international divestment.