Better get EUsed to it : A study on how Brexit affects Swedish international firms within the financial and manufacturing sector

Abstract: This study aims to investigate how Brexit induces changes in commitment, uncertainty and risk for Swedish firms in affiliation with the UK market. This study further attempts to elucidate different strategical actions when operating under politically turbulent market conditions. A qualitative research method involving in-depth, semi-structured interviews with four different firms was conducted to collect the data. A multiple case approach was considered a necessity to answer the research question. One of the criteria for investigating the firms was to have established operations on the UK market. A theoretical framework depicting commitment, uncertainty and risk in international operations was developed in order to carry out the subsequent analysis. The finding suggests that, despite negative and dramatic projections surrounding Brexit, firms are not seen to divest their operations. On an interesting note, hedging risks and increasing commitments is instead evident within each of the investigated firms. This contributes to a rather unique finding within international business. When uncertainty increase on a given market, firms may instead increase commitment to another more stable market without reducing commitment on the more uncertain one. This challenges previous theory where commitment has reduced due to higher uncertainty to mitigate risk.