IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fem/femwpa/2006.150.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Tale of Three Countries: Italian, Spanish and Swiss Manufacturing Operations in China

Author

Listed:
  • Valeria Gattai

    (Bocconi University and ISESAO)

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the choice of FDI versus joint-venture, made by Italian, Spanish and Swiss multinationals in China, as shaped by the risk of Dissipation of Intangible Assets. Probit estimates, based on an entirely new firm-level dataset, constructed by the author, show that FDI is more likely to emerge when know-how easily spills over - namely for firms endowed with more Intangible Assets or belonging to high tech sectors - in line with the theoretical expectations.

Suggested Citation

  • Valeria Gattai, 2006. "A Tale of Three Countries: Italian, Spanish and Swiss Manufacturing Operations in China," Working Papers 2006.150, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    • Handle: RePEc:fem:femwpa:2006.150
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://feem-media.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/NDL2006-150.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dalia Marin & Thierry Verdier, 2008. "Power Inside The Firm and The Market: A General Equilibrium Approach," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 6(4), pages 752-788, June.
    2. Erin Anderson & Hubert Gatignon, 1986. "Modes of Foreign Entry: A Transaction Cost Analysis and Propositions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 17(3), pages 1-26, September.
    3. Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano & Alessandro Turrini, 2002. "Distance and FDI when Contracts are Incomplete," Development Working Papers 165, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    4. Wilfred J. Ethier & James R. Markusen, 2021. "Multinational firms, technology diffusion and trade," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: BROADENING TRADE THEORY Incorporating Market Realities into Traditional Models, chapter 7, pages 131-158, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Grossman, Gene M. & Helpman, Elhanan, 2004. "Managerial incentives and the international organization of production," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 237-262, July.
    6. Horstmann, Ignatius J & Markusen, James R, 1996. "Exploring New Markets: Direct Investment, Contractual Relations and the Multinational Enterprise," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 37(1), pages 1-19, February.
    7. Robert C. Feenstra & Gordon H. Hanson, 2005. "Ownership and Control in Outsourcing to China: Estimating the Property-Rights Theory of the Firm," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 729-761.
    8. Marin, Dalia & Verdier, Thierry, 2012. "Globalization and the empowerment of talent," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 209-223.
    9. David K Tse & Yigang Pan & Kevin Y Au, 1997. "How MNCs Choose Entry Modes and Form Alliances: The China Experience," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 28(4), pages 779-805, December.
    10. Pol Herrmann & Deepak K Datta, 2002. "CEO Successor Characteristics and the Choice of Foreign Market Entry Mode: An Empirical Study," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(3), pages 551-569, September.
    11. James R. Markusen, 1995. "The Boundaries of Multinational Enterprises and the Theory of International Trade," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 169-189, Spring.
    12. Peter J. Buckley & Mark Casson, 2010. "An Economic Model of International Joint Venture Strategy," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Multinational Enterprise Revisited, chapter 6, pages 118-146, Palgrave Macmillan.
    13. Igor Filatotchev & Roger Strange & Jenifer Piesse & Yung-Chih Lien, 2007. "FDI by firms from newly industrialised economies in emerging markets: corporate governance, entry mode and location," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(4), pages 556-572, July.
    14. Grossman, G.M. & Helpman, E., 2001. "Integration vs. Outsourcing in Industry Equilibrium," Papers 2001-7, Tel Aviv.
    15. Saggi, Kamal, 1999. "Foreign Direct Investment, Licensing, and Incentives for Innovation," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(4), pages 699-714, November.
    16. Prasad Padmanabhan & Kang Rae Cho, 1999. "Decision Specific Experience in Foreign Ownership and Establishment Strategies: Evidence from Japanese Firms," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 30(1), pages 25-41, March.
    17. James R. Markusen, 2021. "Contracts, intellectual property rights, and multinational investment in developing countries," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: BROADENING TRADE THEORY Incorporating Market Realities into Traditional Models, chapter 8, pages 159-174, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    18. Marin, Dalia & Verdier, Thierry, 2002. "Power Inside the Firm and the Market," Discussion Papers in Economics 10, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    19. Yigang Pan & David K Tse, 2000. "The Hierarchical Model of Market Entry Modes," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 31(4), pages 535-554, December.
    20. Saggi, Kamal, 1996. "Entry into a Foreign Market: Foreign Direct Investment versus Licensing," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(1), pages 99-104, February.
    21. Fosfuri, Andrea & Motta, Massimo & Ronde, Thomas, 2001. "Foreign direct investment and spillovers through workers' mobility," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 205-222, February.
    22. Aaditya Mattoo & Marcelo Olarreaga & Kamal Saggi, 2023. "Mode of foreign entry, technology transfer, and FDI policy," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Kamal Saggi (ed.), Technology Transfer, Foreign Direct Investment, and the Protection of Intellectual Property in the Global Economy, chapter 25, pages 567-583, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    23. Pol Antràs, 2003. "Firms, Contracts, and Trade Structure," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1375-1418.
    24. Pol Antras & Elhanan Helpman, 2004. "Global Sourcing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(3), pages 552-580, June.
    25. M Krishna Erramilli, 1996. "Nationality and Subsidiary Ownership Patterns in Multinational Corporations," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(2), pages 225-248, June.
    26. Laszlo Tihanyi & David A Griffith & Craig J Russell, 2005. "The effect of cultural distance on entry mode choice, international diversification, and MNE performance: a meta-analysis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 36(3), pages 270-283, May.
    27. Fosfuri, Andrea, 2000. "Patent protection, imitation and the mode of technology transfer," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 18(7), pages 1129-1149, October.
    28. Yigang Pan, 2002. "Equity Ownership in International Joint Ventures: The Impact of Source Country Factors," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(2), pages 375-384, June.
    29. Chen, Haiyang & Hu, Michael Y., 2002. "An analysis of determinants of entry mode and its impact on performance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 193-210, April.
    30. Hongxin Zhao & Yadong Luo & Taewon Suh, 2004. "Transaction cost determinants and ownership-based entry mode choice: a meta-analytical review," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 35(6), pages 524-544, November.
    31. Mattoo, Aaditya & Olarreaga, Marcelo & Saggi, Kamal, 2001. "Mode of foreign entry, technology transfer, and foreign direct investment policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2737, The World Bank.
    32. Ashish Arora & Andrea Fosfuri, 2000. "Wholly Owned Subsidiary Versus Technology Licensing in the Worldwide Chemical Industry," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 31(4), pages 555-572, December.
    33. Xiaowen Tian, 2007. "Accounting for sources of FDI technology spillovers: evidence from China," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(1), pages 147-159, January.
    34. Kamal Saggi, 2002. "Trade, Foreign Direct Investment, and International Technology Transfer: A Survey," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 17(2), pages 191-235, September.
    35. Keith D Brouthers, 2002. "Institutional, Cultural and Transaction Cost Influences on Entry Mode Choice and Performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(2), pages 203-221, June.
    36. repec:hrv:faseco:4784029 is not listed on IDEAS
    37. Feng Li & Jing Li, 1999. "Foreign Investment in China," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-37912-1.
    38. Klaus E. Meyer, 1998. "Direct Investment in Economies in Transition," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1413.
    39. Marjorie A Lyles & Jane E Salk, 2007. "Knowledge acquisition from foreign parents in international joint ventures: an empirical examination in the Hungarian context," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(1), pages 3-18, January.
    40. Magnus Blomstrom & Robert E. Lipsey & Lennart Ohlsson, 1989. "What Do Rich Countries Trade with Each Other? R&D and the Composition of U.S. and Swedish Trade," NBER Working Papers 3140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    41. Nigel Driffield & James H Love, 2007. "Linking FDI motivation and host economy productivity effects: conceptual and empirical analysis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(3), pages 460-473, May.
    42. Jocelyn Glass, Amy & Saggi, Kamal, 2002. "Licensing versus direct investment: implications for economic growth," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 131-153, January.
    43. Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 2002. "Integration versus Outsourcing in Industry Equilibrium," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 85-120.
    44. 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.
    45. Peter J Buckley & Jeremy Clegg & Chengqi Wang, 2007. "Is the relationship between inward FDI and spillover effects linear? An empirical examination of the case of China," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(3), pages 447-459, May.
    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. Gattai, Valeria & Natale, Piergiovanna, 2013. "What makes a joint venture: Micro-evidence from Sino-Italian contracts," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 194-205.

    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. Lorenzo Casaburi & Valeria Gattai, 2009. "Why FDI? An Empirical Assessment Based on Contractual Incompleteness and Dissipation of Intangible Assets," Working Papers 164, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2009.
    2. Valeria Gattai, 2010. "Firm's intangible assets and multinational activity: Full versus shared ownership," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 553-589.
    3. Valeria Gattai & Corrado Molteni, 2007. "Dissipation of Knowledge and the Boundaries of the Multinational Enterprise," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 143(1), pages 1-26, April.
    4. Valeria Gattai, 2006. "From the Theory of the Firm to FDI and Internalisation: A Survey," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 65(2), pages 225-262, November.
    5. Gattai, Valeria, 2006. "A Tale of Three Countries: Italian, Spanish and Swiss Manufacturing Operations in China," Knowledge, Technology, Human Capital Working Papers 12104, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    6. Canabal, Anne & White III, George O., 2008. "Entry mode research: Past and future," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 267-284, June.
    7. Morschett, Dirk & Schramm-Klein, Hanna & Swoboda, Bernhard, 2010. "Decades of research on market entry modes: What do we really know about external antecedents of entry mode choice?," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 60-77, March.
    8. Zdolsek, Daniel & Kolar, Iztok, 2013. "Management disclosure practices for disaggregated (financial) information in Slovenian unlisted companies," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 18(2), pages 232-263.
    9. Larimo, Jorma & Arslan, Ahmad, 2013. "Determinants of foreign direct investment ownership mode choice: Evidence from Nordic investments in Central and Eastern Europe," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 18(2), pages 232-263.
    10. Zhi Shen & Francisco Puig & Justin Paul, 2017. "Foreign Market Entry Mode Research: A Review and Research Agenda," The International Trade Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 429-456, October.
    11. Kukharskyy, Bohdan, 2020. "A tale of two property rights: Knowledge, physical assets, and multinational firm boundaries," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    12. Yongmin Chen & Ignatius J. Horstmann & James R. Markusen, 2012. "Physical capital, knowledge capital, and the choice between FDI and outsourcing," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(1), pages 1-15, February.
    13. Keith D. Brouthers & Liang Chen & Sali Li & Noman Shaheer, 2022. "Charting new courses to enter foreign markets: Conceptualization, theoretical framework, and research directions on non-traditional entry modes," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(9), pages 2088-2115, December.
    14. Erdener Kaynak & Mehmet Demirbag & Ekrem Tatoglu, 2007. "Determinants of ownership-based entry mode choice of MNEs: Evidence from Mongolia," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 505-530, October.
    15. Diego Puga & Daniel Trefler, 2005. "Wake up and smell the ginseng: The rise of incremental innovation in low-wage countries," Working Papers tecipa-193, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    16. Antrà s, Pol & Yeaple, Stephen R., 2014. "Multinational Firms and the Structure of International Trade," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 55-130, Elsevier.
    17. Youngok Kim & Sidney Gray, 2009. "An assessment of alternative empirical measures of cultural distance: Evidence from the Republic of Korea," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 55-74, March.
    18. Anne-Wil Harzing & Markus Pudelko, 2016. "Do We Need to Distance Ourselves from the Distance Concept? Why Home and Host Country Context Might Matter More Than (Cultural) Distance," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 1-34, February.
    19. Conconi, Paola & Legros, Patrick & Newman, Andrew F., 2012. "Trade liberalization and organizational change," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 197-208.
    20. Pol Antràs, 2005. "Incomplete Contracts and the Product Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1054-1073, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intangible Assets; Internalisation; FDI; Joint-venture; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • C25 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions; Probabilities
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:fem:femwpa:2006.150. 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: Alberto Prina Cerai (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feemmit.html .

    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.