Scholarlink

<p>Foreign direct divestment (FDD) remains underexplored relative to inward foreign direct investment, particularly at the subsidiary and regional levels in small open economies. This study examines foreign subsidiary downsizing and exit in Bulgaria during the post-COVID period, using evidence from 2023 to 2025 and a multiple-case design based on interviews with foreign-invested firms, regional stakeholders, and national institutions. It develops a qualitative, mechanism-based typology of subsidiary exit and identifies four analytically distinct pathways: competitiveness-erosion exit, corporate-strategic reconfiguration exit, shock-activated structural exit, and institutional-confidence exit. These pathways are conceptualized as ideal–typical mechanisms rather than exhaustive empirical categories. The findings show that divestment is not the simple inverse of investment and should not be interpreted uniformly as either market failure or policy failure. Rather, exit decisions reflect different combinations of subsidiary-level competitiveness pressures, headquarters-level portfolio restructuring, disruptive triggering events, and host-country institutional conditions. The analysis further shows that the territorial consequences of FDD are conditional upon regional absorptive capacity, including labor-market depth, supplier diversification, and institutional coordination. The paper contributes a bounded, mechanism-oriented framework for analyzing foreign subsidiary exit in FDI-dependent economies and highlights the policy importance of investment retention, reinvestment support, and regional resilience.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Foreign direct divestment in Bulgaria: a mechanism-based typology of exit pathways and policy responses in the post-COVID period

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月11日

查看全文
  • Paskal Zhelev,
  • Antonina Toncheva

摘要

Foreign direct divestment (FDD) remains underexplored relative to inward foreign direct investment, particularly at the subsidiary and regional levels in small open economies. This study examines foreign subsidiary downsizing and exit in Bulgaria during the post-COVID period, using evidence from 2023 to 2025 and a multiple-case design based on interviews with foreign-invested firms, regional stakeholders, and national institutions. It develops a qualitative, mechanism-based typology of subsidiary exit and identifies four analytically distinct pathways: competitiveness-erosion exit, corporate-strategic reconfiguration exit, shock-activated structural exit, and institutional-confidence exit. These pathways are conceptualized as ideal–typical mechanisms rather than exhaustive empirical categories. The findings show that divestment is not the simple inverse of investment and should not be interpreted uniformly as either market failure or policy failure. Rather, exit decisions reflect different combinations of subsidiary-level competitiveness pressures, headquarters-level portfolio restructuring, disruptive triggering events, and host-country institutional conditions. The analysis further shows that the territorial consequences of FDD are conditional upon regional absorptive capacity, including labor-market depth, supplier diversification, and institutional coordination. The paper contributes a bounded, mechanism-oriented framework for analyzing foreign subsidiary exit in FDI-dependent economies and highlights the policy importance of investment retention, reinvestment support, and regional resilience.