Does Location Really Matter? The Influence of the FDI Location on Enterprise Competitiveness: The Evidence from Polish Enterprises

A company’s competitiveness depends on the linkages between its resources and capabilities and location-specific factors where the company runs its activities. Companies combine the advantages of particular geographic locations with their resources and capabilities to enhance existing and develop new competitive advantages. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of international operations in the form of foreign direct investments on the competitiveness of the investing companies as well as to identify areas of greatest benefits derived from international involvement based on the location of their foreign affiliates. The paper presents results of a field survey carried out in 2012 through direct interviews among Polish companies – foreign direct investors. The research results revealed that the foreign activities of Polish enterprises have a positive influence on their competitiveness; however, the FDI impact is not so clear as it was expected. The empirical findings also proved that the location of their foreign affiliates did not influence significantly the scale and nature of benefits from international activities in terms of the Chi-square analysis applied. However, we observe some tendencies, based on the impact index, indicating some dependencies between the location of foreign affiliates and the fields of the FDI impact identified in the competitive potential of investing companies.