Foreign investment in working capital structure and impact on global value chain approach, in particular vis-à-vis the Visegrad countries and China

International capital flows form the main lifeblood of the global economy. They are of critical importance to both sending and receiving countries, being closely tied to their economic and social development, risk assessments, and productivity potential. Despite the fact that capital transfers (which include portfolio investments, foreign direct investment (FDI), and banking transfers) primarily occur between developed countries, they hold particular significance from the perspective of emerging economies. In these countries, the economy is highly vulnerable to the volatility or limited availability of foreign capital transfers, as the country's ability to finance its budget partly depends on its attractiveness to capital.

The motivations behind capital flows must be evaluated from both the "pull" (receiving) and "push" (sending) factor perspectives (Fernandez-Arias 1996). According to this, push factors are more clearly identifiable in the case of portfolio investments (such as the search for higher returns, risk management, etc.), whereas pull factors tend to be more pronounced in the case of foreign direct investment (FDI). This distinction is not accidental, as FDI investments involve capital owners considering strategic ("soft") factors when making decisions, factors that portfolio investors typically pay less attention to. Therefore, the focus in FDI decisions is not primarily on local conditions, but rather on the investor's global, long-term strategy (Albuquerque et al. 2005).

As a result, the structural changes that have occurred over the past few decades in FDI transfers cannot solely be assessed from the perspective of receiving countries; it is also necessary to take into account the strategies of companies in the sending countries.