NATIONAL IMAGE AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT AMONG SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN COUNTRIES

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to establish the influence of national image on foreign direct investment (FDI) among the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Nations. The investigation was grounded on the positivism approach where descriptive crosssectional research design was employed. The research used 46 Sub-Saharan nations as
the population where the census technique was embraced to cover all the target population. The study adopted both primary and secondary sources of data whereby the survey questionnaire was employed to collect the primary data. The Heads of Foreign Missions of the 46 SSA countries in Kenya were targeted. Secondary sources of information were gathered from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) publications on foreign direct investment. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. Analysis of Variance(ANOVA) was used to test the formulated hypotheses. From the analysis of the
findings, it was revealed that there was a positive and significant relationship between national image and FDI on the studied 46 SSA nations. The independent parameters contained mixed findings where political dimension influenced FDI positively but it was insignificant; social dimension of the national image had a positive and a significant influence on FDI and finally, the technological dimension contained positive and
significant influence with FDI. It is therefore prudent for Sub-Saharan Africa to understand the national image dimensions in the regional context in order to carry out frequent analysis and develop strategies that are relevant and applicable to their FDI competitiveness.

Keywords: National Image, Foreign Direct Investment, Sub-Saharan African Countries