Doing Well by Doing Good?

Sammanfattning

This thesis explores how Swedish foreign aid, delivered through Public-Private Development Partnerships (PPDPs), generates motives for engagement and creates business opportunities for Swedish Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). As Sweden increasingly aligns its foreign aid policy with national interests by increasing the involvement of domestic firms, it becomes important to understand why these firms engage in aid-funded partnerships and what outcomes they experience. Despite the growing popularity of aid-funded PPDPs, there is limited research investigating the implications for firms in donor countries. Through a qualitative multiple case study, this thesis explores the motives behind Swedish MNEs’ participation in SIDA-funded PPDPs and how these collaborations foster business opportunities for them. The data were collected through interviews and analysed through the lens of a tentative analytical framework, drawing on Stakeholder Theory, the Resource-Based View (RBV), and Entrepreneurship Theory. The findings suggest that firms are motivated not only by profit but also by social aspects, increased market access and enhanced legitimacy. Further, the findings indicate that PPDPs provide the companies opportunities such as strengthened human capital, stakeholder relationships and access to new markets. This research contributes to the highly unexplored field of donor country firms’ implications of foreign aid and offers practical insights for the design of future development partnerships.