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Amazon’s HQ2 Site Selection Criteria: The New ‘Gold Standard’ in FDI Decision-Making

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  • Alfried Braumann

    (Economic Policy and EU-Affairs Executive Department, Vienna Business Agency, Austria / Urban and Regional Research, TU Wien, Austria)

Abstract

In 2017–2018, Seattle-based Tech behemoth Amazon executed a highly publicised location-finding process for a $5 billion investment project, dubbed ‘HQ2’. Owing to the combination of high investment volume and the company’s unique public exposure, the HQ2 process is on course to becoming a basic yardstick for future foreign direct investment (FDI) projects all over the world. This article compiles the company’s previously unpublished site selection criteria and develops an evidence-based system of investment decision arguments which is employed to test the currently dominant approaches in location decision theory—behavioural, neoclassical, and institutional. Our results identify gaps vis-à-vis this emerging ‘Gold Standard’ and we propose the addition of a fourth, project-oriented approach to theory to fill the detected shortcomings. Furthermore, this system equips policymakers with a tool to evaluate their investment attraction strategies based on the decision criteria extracted from the HQ2 process.

Suggested Citation

  • Alfried Braumann, 2020. "Amazon’s HQ2 Site Selection Criteria: The New ‘Gold Standard’ in FDI Decision-Making," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 403-417.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v:5:y:2020:i:3:p:403-417
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