“The influence of the business climate on the decision-making process of foreign companies operating in Macedonia”.

The Western Balkan market has been showing to be, for some years, one of the most dynamic and active ones thanks to the reforms implemented by local governments, aimed at opening up to foreign companies in order to acquire the technology and know-how needed, in view of a future entry into the EU. In particular, among the countries in this area, Macedonia is now playing an important role, due to the high degree of attractiveness achieved by improving the business climate, which is increasingly directing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) towards this country. So, following a brief analysis of the main forms of Foreign Direct Investment, the present work is aimed at examining what fields have experienced an improvement in the business climate in Macedonia and how this has influenced the development strategies of foreign companies (particularly the Italian ones), thus yielding any economic benefit to corporate investors as well as to the country itself. In this aim, an analysis was carried out following the data collected from interviews with the managers of the companies located in Macedonia, based on ten indicators. The final results were then compared with those obtained, on average, in the Western Balkans.