Attracting investments from Germany to Portugal: A specific value-proposition for automotive suppliers

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

This thesis work grounds on the investment relations of Portugal and Germany intending to provide investment promotion agencies a more comprehensive model and a more effective set of investment promotion tools. Particularly, it stresses how Portugal can attract more capital from Germany in a specific sub-sector – the automotive Tier1 suppliers industry (manufacturer who provides directly to a company without dealing with other manufacturers or a middleman). It builds on a very strong field work, based essentially on experts and top managers’ opinions of several different spheres. It is also structured around the collection of several case-studies’ insights and carefully designed questionnaires. A main finding is that one as to be realistic with regard to Portugal’s potential to attract investment. Investment promotion analysis shows that investment decisions depend first and foremost on the quality of a country’s business environment; investment promotion agencies can only bridge information gaps and mitigate biased perceptions by leveraging on a country’s strengths. It is offered several recommendations both at a more general and operational level. The need to improve a ‘suboptimal’ choice and prioritization of arguments and metrics or some important investment lead generation activities suggestions are just some examples, among others.