The perspective of Turkish companies' overseas investments between 2009-2019 and its interaction with Turkiye's policy choices

The goal of this thesis is to assess the evolution of Turkish outward foreign direct investment by geographies and sectors, together with the attitude of the Turkish Government's foreign policy choices after the global financial crisis of 2008 until the global pandemic of 2020. The article suggests that Turkish firms became stable investors after 2009 thanks to domestic macro-economic restructuring and strengthened corporate maturity at home. The deals in 2009–2019 show that major Turkish investor firms are mostly directed towards western developed countries in order to access new markets, like the regular behavior of developing country multi-national enterprises under liberal market commercial dynamics, but are not in line with the policy choices of the Turkish government. The root cause of the shifts in Turkish foreign policy is analyzed from a commercial perspective, together with the attitude of Turkish firms toward cross-border acquisitions. The findings show that policy-making processes in Turkiye can be evaluated from a constructivist dimension during the 2010s due to the identity and material interests of the ruling elite instead of a mercantilist trading state view like before 2009.