The Impact of Resource Management on the Growth of Multinational Corporations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) has gone through rapid development in many areas, especially the internationalization of its emerging market. However, in recent years, the performance of multinational corporations (MNCs) in the region has been suppressed due to some factors within the region such as the war against ISIS, political instability, and global economic hardship. This chapter examines the factors that affect the growth of MNCs in the KRI. The study considers how the MNC manages to make use of local resources, technical advancements, and external factors to enhance its performance and overall growth. In doing so, a mixed methodology of quantitative and qualitative approach is applied including a confirmatory factor analysis to reduce the number of variables under each group of factors. We combined several variables, and thus, one latent variable is created and called performance. The results indicate that while competitive advantages along with human capital and technology are the leading factors that positively affect the growth of the MNCs in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, external and environmental factors have had less impact on a firm’s performance. A regression analysis on the performance of MNCs is applied, and the results reveal that all the factors under performance, namely, knowledge, capability, experience, technology, and political factors, organizational culture, and firm reputation, have a positive outcome. However, legal factors appeared to have a negative effect on a firm’s performance. Further research on this topic is recommended in the future with a larger sample size and involving more industries.