Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index

The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Confidence Index influences a business's future decisions for ventures on foreign soil. Businesses use the index to compare countries for the most and potentially best prospective investment in order to profit from expansion. The FDI Index lists the top countries that are projected to be the most compelling to directly invest in fixed and variable assets in order to achieve management control (Ball, Geringer, Minor, & McNett, 2010). According to Ball, Geringer, Minor, and Mcnett (2010) in International Business; The Challenge of Global Competition, “if a nation is continuing to receive appreciable amounts of foreign investment, its investment climate must be favorable.” Through analysis of projected countries for foreign investment, a company can determine if a foreign market is favorable to expand into since other companies are continuously investing in them.

A.T. Kearney Inc., a global management consultant firm, researches and constructs the Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index periodically in order to assist and advise CEO’s across the world in multiple markets make the most informed business decisions. With offices in thirty- seven countries, A.T. Kearney has the presence and global notoriety that corporations lean upon for expansion decisions (A.T. Kearney Inc., 2011). The company’s vast experience advising top corporations in multiple industries lends credibility to the A.T. Kearney Inc.’s analysis of the constructed FDI Confidence Index.

The FDI Confidence Index is a widely used tool that is compiled using analysis of many components. A.T. Kearney Inc. begins the research for the top countries to invest by surveying the top corporate executives of one thousand of the largest businesses throughout the world and account for more than " two trillion in annual global revenue," (Laudicina, Gott, & Pohl, 2010). These selected companies are representatives from forty-four countries across seventeen industries