Examining the strategic determinants of foreign market entry in the wind energy industry through an OLI-based approach: Implications for Nordic wind energy companies in the South Korean context

Abstract

The increasing urgency of global sustainability challenges has propelled rapid transformations in energy systems worldwide, intensifying cross-border investment and strategic decision-making in the renewable energy sector. Recognizing this phenomenon, this thesis examines the strategic determinants of foreign market entry in the wind energy industry, with a particular focus on Nordic wind energy companies expanding into the South Korean market.

Primarily grounded in the Ownership–Location–Internalization (OLI) paradigm, the thesis develops an integrated conceptual framework that combines firm-specific organizational advantages, host-country locational conditions, and internalization considerations to explain how business operations are shaped in the wind energy industry, which is characterized with capital-intensive and policy-driven context.

The research adopts a qualitative research design based exclusively on secondary data. Data were systematically collected from policy documents, industry and market reports, academic literature, and publicly available governmental sources, and were organized across analytical dimensions aligned with the OLI framework. The collected data were synthesized through structured comparative and thematic analysis, enabling the identification of patterns linking firm capabilities with institutional, regulatory, technological, and cultural characteristics of the South Korean wind energy market.

The findings highlight that while Nordic wind energy companies possess strong ownership advantages – particularly in advanced technology, project development expertise, and sophisticated assets – their effective deployment is highly contingent on locational constraints, such as regulatory complexity, industrial policy orientation, and cultural distance. The thesis contributes by refining the application of the OLI framework to the wind energy industry, thereby demonstrating how strategic entry decisions emerge from the interaction between firm-level strengths and context-specific market conditions, and offering insights for both scholars and practitioners concerned with international expansion in clean energy markets.