Made in Kalmar : A Case Study about the Fanerdun Establishment in Kalmar

Abstract: The Swedish town Kalmar suffered from economic cutbacks during the 1990’s and many local companies left the region resulting in a decrease in population. Local authorities therefore set goals of regional development and an economic turn was thought to come with foreign investments. Fanerdun is one of the Chinese firms recently interested in investing in the Swedish market, more specifically in Kalmar. Its business idea is to build a convention centre where ap-proximately 1000 Chinese suppliers will sell light industry products to companies in the Baltic Sea region and Northern Europe. The establishment process is of value to study since the economically strained Kalmar region managed to attract such a large investment and Fanerdun’s reasons behind its choice of location for the establishment are not apparent. The purpose of this thesis is to answer the questions why and how the convention centre was realised in Kalmar. Both given and cre-ated factors are taken into account. To fulfil the purpose, a case study using a qualitative method with an abductive approach was used. Primary data was collected through interviews with different involved actors to give a complete picture from various perspectives. This approach is referred to as triangula-tion and was also present in the frame of reference. Three different theory fields; regional network, internationalisation and guanxi were appropriate to describe the complexity of the establishment process. The conclusion includes the given and created factors that led to Fanerdun’s establishment in Kalmar. The given factors are; location in Europe and the Baltic Sea region, low corporate tax, low investment costs, infrastructure capabilities and small town advantage. From the analysis, created factors became clear. One common feature found to be a central factor was relationships between people, organisations and regions. From Kalmar’s perspective, the regional network anticipation explains why the establishment was realised. To answer how, the three developing regional networks; Changxing-Kalmar, Baltic Sea region and Kalmar region itself together played essential roles. From Fanerdun’s perspective, why and how Kalmar was chosen as location for its international establishment is interlinked. Different internationalisation drives were characterised by commitment, shared knowledge and mu-tual dependency between Fanerdun and Kalmar representatives. The presence of guanxi, a Chinese concept of relationship cultivation, was a specific aspect for the realisation of the convention centre.