IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/manint/v47y2007i1d10.1007_s11575-007-0002-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reconsidering the concentration of US MNE activity: Is it global, regional or national?

Author

Listed:
  • Walid Hejazi

    (University of Toronto)

Abstract

Abstract and Key Results Several recent papers by Rugman and his colleagues have improved our understanding of the regional concentration in the activities of the world’s largest 500 MNEs. The current paper extends this literature in two dimensions. First, a formal statistical analysis is undertaken to test whether patterns of US MNE assets, sales, income, and employment are consistent with a transactions cost interpretation. Second, this paper allows for the national dimension, defined as activities inside the home country, to be a possible explanation of regional concentrations of MNE activity. The evidence robustly shows that regional concentrations in US MNE activity are driven by the national dimension. The analysis also indicates that these national concentrations have not hindered US MNE access to important global markets — that is, US MNE managers have gotten it right. As such, there should be no attempt to increase US MNE activity globally stemming solely from a large concentration in the home region.

Suggested Citation

  • Walid Hejazi, 2007. "Reconsidering the concentration of US MNE activity: Is it global, regional or national?," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 5-27, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:manint:v:47:y:2007:i:1:d:10.1007_s11575-007-0002-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11575-007-0002-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11575-007-0002-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11575-007-0002-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hejazi, Walid & Safarian, A.E., 2005. "NAFTA effects and the level of development," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(12), pages 1741-1749, December.
    2. James R. Markusen, 2004. "Multinational Firms and the Theory of International Trade," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262633078, December.
    3. Kimberly A. Clausing, 2001. "Trade creation and trade diversion in the Canada - United States Free Trade Agreement," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 34(3), pages 677-696, August.
    4. Bruce A. Blonigen, 2019. "Firm-Specific Assets and the Link Between Exchange Rates and Foreign Direct Investment," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foreign Direct Investment, chapter 3, pages 89-120, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Alan M. Rugman & Alain Verbeke, 2005. "A Perspective on Regional and Global Strategies of Multinational Enterprises," Chapters, in: Analysis of Multinational Strategic Management, chapter 8, pages 104-119, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Daniel Trefler, 2004. "The Long and Short of the Canada-U. S. Free Trade Agreement," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 870-895, September.
    7. La Porta, Rafael & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1997. "Legal Determinants of External Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1131-1150, July.
    8. Feldstein, Martin & Horioka, Charles, 1980. "Domestic Saving and International Capital Flows," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(358), pages 314-329, June.
    9. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    10. Steven Globerman & Daniel Shapiro, 2003. "Governance infrastructure and US foreign direct investment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 34(1), pages 19-39, January.
    11. Brainard, S Lael, 1997. "An Empirical Assessment of the Proximity-Concentration Trade-off between Multinational Sales and Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(4), pages 520-544, September.
    12. Robert C. Feenstra & James R. Markusen & Andrew K. Rose, 2001. "Using the gravity equation to differentiate among alternative theories of trade," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 34(2), pages 430-447, May.
    13. Rugman, Alan & Girod, Stéphane, 2003. "Retail Multinationals and Globalization:: The Evidence is Regional," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 24-37, February.
    14. Coakley, Jerry & Kulasi, Farida & Smith, Ron, 1998. "The Feldstein-Horioka Puzzle and Capital Mobility: A Review," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 3(2), pages 169-188, April.
    15. Lipsey, Robert E & Weiss, Merle Yahr, 1981. "Foreign Production and Exports in Manufacturing Industries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(4), pages 488-494, November.
    16. Bruce A. Blonigen & Wesley W. Wilson, 1999. "Explaining Armington: What Determines Substitutability Between Home and Foreign Goods?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 32(1), pages 1-21, February.
    17. Bergstrand, Jeffrey H, 1985. "The Gravity Equation in International Trade: Some Microeconomic Foundations and Empirical Evidence," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(3), pages 474-481, August.
    18. Georgopoulos, George J. & Hejazi, Walid, 2005. "Feldstein-Horioka meets a time trend," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 353-357, March.
    19. Walid Hejazi, 2005. "Are Regional Concentrations of OECD Exports and Outward FDI Consistent with Gravity?," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 33(4), pages 423-436, December.
    20. Grubert, Harry & Mutti, John, 1991. "Taxes, Tariffs and Transfer Pricing in Multinational Corporate Decision Making," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(2), pages 285-293, May.
    21. Lipsey, Robert E & Weiss, Merle Yahr, 1984. "Foreign Production and Exports of Individual Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(2), pages 304-308, May.
    22. Bergstrand, Jeffrey H, 1989. "The Generalized Gravity Equation, Monopolistic Competition, and the Factor-Proportions Theory in International Trade," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(1), pages 143-153, February.
    23. Levine, Ross, 1999. "Law, Finance, and Economic Growth," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 8(1-2), pages 8-35, January.
    24. Bergstrand, Jeffrey H, 1990. "The Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson Model, the Linder Hypothesis and the Determinants of Bilateral Intra-industry Trade," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(403), pages 1216-1229, December.
    25. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Mastruzzi, Massimo, 2005. "Governance matters IV : governance indicators for 1996-2004," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3630, The World Bank.
    26. McCallum, John, 1995. "National Borders Matter: Canada-U.S. Regional Trade Patterns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(3), pages 615-623, June.
    27. Robert Grosse & Len J Trevino, 1996. "Foreign Direct Investment in the United States: An Analysis by Country of Origin," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(1), pages 139-155, March.
    28. Leamer, Edward E, 1974. "The Commodity Composition of International Trade in Manufactures: An Empirical Analysis," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 26(3), pages 350-374, November.
    29. Anderson, James E, 1979. "A Theoretical Foundation for the Gravity Equation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(1), pages 106-116, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hejazi, Walid, 2022. "What subnational analysis could mean for IB research? Evidence for home bias reversals based on catchment area alcohol sales in Ontario," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(6).
    2. Yener Kandogan & Jens Hiller, 2018. "Alliances in international governmental organizations, regional trade agreement formation, and multinational enterprise regionalization strategy," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(6), pages 729-742, August.
    3. Sjoerd Beugelsdijk & Jean-François Hennart & Arjen Slangen & Roger Smeets, 2010. "Why and how FDI stocks are a biased measure of MNE affiliate activity," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(9), pages 1444-1459, December.
    4. Elitsa R. Banalieva & Michael D. Santoro & Joy Ruihua Jiang, 2012. "Home Region Focus and Technical Efficiency of Multinational Enterprise," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 493-518, August.
    5. Alan M. Rugman & Alain Verbeke & Quyen T. K. Nguyen, 2011. "Fifty Years of International Business Theory and Beyond," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 51(6), pages 755-786, December.
    6. Berrill, Jenny & Mannella, Giancarlo, 2013. "Are firms from developed markets more international than firms from emerging markets?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 147-161.
    7. Patrik Vanek, 2022. "Aspects of Measuring Firm-Level Multinationality," MENDELU Working Papers in Business and Economics 2022-83, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    8. Gulamhussen, Mohamed Azzim & Hennart, Jean-François & Pinheiro, Carlos Manuel, 2016. "What drives cross-border M&As in commercial banking?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(S), pages 6-18.
    9. William Q. Judge & Yuping Liu–Thompkins & J. Lee Brown & Chatdanai Pongpatipat, 2015. "The Impact of Home Country Institutions on Corporate Technological Entrepreneurship via R&D Investments and Virtual World Presence," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(2), pages 237-266, March.
    10. Arjen H. L. Slangen & Sjoerd Beugelsdijk & Jean-Francois Hennart, 2011. "The Impact of Cultural Distance on Bilateral Arm’s Length Exports," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 51(6), pages 875-896, December.
    11. de Jong, Gjalt & Phan, T. Binh & van Ees, Hans, 2011. "Does the meta-environment determine firm performance? Theory and evidence from European multinational enterprises," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 454-465, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Walid Hejazi, 2005. "Are Regional Concentrations of OECD Exports and Outward FDI Consistent with Gravity?," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 33(4), pages 423-436, December.
    2. Ghazalian, Pascal L. & Furtan, W. Hartley, 2008. "The effects of multinational activities on the measurement of home bias," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 401-416, September.
    3. Elvira Sapienza, 2009. "The interaction between Export and FDI: Central-Eastern Europe and EU15," Quaderni DSEMS 13-2009, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Matematiche e Statistiche, Universita' di Foggia.
    4. Sally Milton & M A B Siddique, 2014. "Trade Creation and Diversion Under the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA)," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 14-26, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    5. Juliette Milgram, 2003. "Quantitative Restrictions on Clothing Imports: Impact and Determinants of the Common Trade Policy Towards Developing Countries," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2003/04, Centro de Estudios Andaluces.
    6. Hejazi, Walid & Safarian, A.E., 2005. "NAFTA effects and the level of development," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(12), pages 1741-1749, December.
    7. Raphaël Chiappini, 2016. "Do overseas investments create or replace trade? New insights from a macro-sectoral study on Japan," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 403-425, June.
    8. Zhang, Daowei & Li, Yanshu, 2009. "Forest endowment, logging restrictions, and China's wood products trade," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 46-53, March.
    9. Zwinkels, Remco C.J. & Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd, 2010. "Gravity equations: Workhorse or Trojan horse in explaining trade and FDI patterns across time and space?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 102-115, February.
    10. James R. Markusen & Keith E. Maskus, 2001. "General-Equilibrium Approaches to the Multinational Firm: A Review of Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 8334, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Michele Fratianni & Chang Hoon Oh, 2009. "Expanding RTAs, trade flows, and the multinational enterprise," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 40(7), pages 1206-1227, September.
    12. My Duong & Mark J. Holmes & Anna Strutt & Steven Lim, 2019. "Effects of Trade Agreements and Foreign Direct Investment on Trade: Evidence from Vietnam," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 9(3), pages 116-126.
    13. Belkacem Laabas and Walid Abdmoulah, "undated". "Determinants of Arab Intraregional Foreign Direct Investments," API-Working Paper Series 0905, Arab Planning Institute - Kuwait, Information Center.
    14. Danilo Pelletiere & Kenneth A. Reinert, 2006. "World Trade in Used Automobiles: A Gravity Analysis of Japanese and US Exports," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 161-172, June.
    15. Mutti, John & Grubert, Harry, 2004. "Empirical asymmetries in foreign direct investment and taxation," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 337-358, March.
    16. A. James Wynne & Chandrashekar Challa & John Palesis & Bernie Farkas, 2015. "A Conceptual Model: Impact Of Usage Of Social Media Tools To Enhance Project Management Success," Portuguese Journal of Management Studies, ISEG, Universidade de Lisboa, vol. 0(2), pages 55-72.
    17. James Harrigan, 2001. "Specialization and the Volume of Trade: Do the Data Obey the Laws?," NBER Working Papers 8675, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. James E. Anderson & Douglas Marcouiller, 2002. "Insecurity And The Pattern Of Trade: An Empirical Investigation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 342-352, May.
    19. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 691-751, September.
    20. Peter Egger, 2008. "On the role of distance for outward FDI," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 42(2), pages 375-389, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:manint:v:47:y:2007:i:1:d:10.1007_s11575-007-0002-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.