The role of strategic leadership in attracting foreign direct investment through holistic marketing: A field study on Iraqi investment promotion agencies

The subject of the doctoral thesis is, "The Role Of Strategic Leadership İn Attracting Foreign Direct İnvestment Through Holistic Marketing: A Field Study On Iraqi İnvestment Promotion Agencies". It is aiming to analyse the role of strategic leadership in attracting direct foreign investments through holistic marketing via the example of investment promotion agencies in Iraq. Although investment opportunities exist in Iraq, these opportunities are not attractive enough due to various structural and external factors. Among the factors affecting this, there are Iraq's political, security, economic and legal instability, the repellent effect against investments due to administrative and financial corruption, poor management and inadequate marketing activities, and weaknesses in the state's basic infrastructure that restrict investors' freedom in many areas. Descriptive analytical method was used in the study and random sampling method is used in order to achieve the objectives of the study. The selected sample consisted of 155 managers representing senior managers from investment agencies, and 131 valid questionnaires were completed for analysis. In the study, a questionnaire was used as a data collection method. The scales of the research were carefully examined and adapted to the Iraqi conditions. SPSS and AMOS statistic softwares and various statistical methods were used to determine the correlation and effect relationships between the study variables. According to the results, it was determined that strategic leadership is highly present in investment agencies, there is a positive relationship between the study variables, and there is a statistically significant effect between strategic leadership and attracting foreign direct investment. The level of impact increases with the use of holistic marketing, which shows the importance of strategic leadership through holistic marketing to attract foreign direct investment. The recommendations presented based on the study findings draw attention to the importance of the strategic leadership of investment agencies in the processes of improving and attracting foreign direct investments and emphasize that these agencies should increase their competitiveness by improving both internal and external working defects. In addition, it is recommended that investment agencies restructure their vision and missions in this direction by focusing on strengthening, developing, adopting and embodying the holistic marketing philosophy. Keywords: Iraq, Strategic Leadership, Holistic Marketing, Foreign Direct Investment Attraction, Investment Promotion Agencies.