Attracting Chinese Foreign Direct Investment to Small, Developed Economies: The Case of Ireland

In response to the unparalleled growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) from China in recent years, we present a multilevel, in-depth analysis of Chinese investment in Ireland using semi-structured interviews and case studies. Our findings suggest that while Chinese FDI can be explained to an extent through classical theories of FDI, such investment is unconventional in many regards and thus requires the extension of established theories. We also find that factors above and beyond those that apply to traditional sources of investment are at play in the case of China, including the presence of host-country clusters, the strength of intergovernmental relations, and the degree of alignment between China's development priorities and the host.