IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ginixx/v42y2016i2p244-270.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bringing the Company Back In: A Firm-Level Analysis of Foreign Direct Investment

Author

Listed:
  • Colin M. Barry

Abstract

The industry standard for studying multinational corporations (MNCs) has been to evaluate patterns in aggregate country-level measures of foreign direct investment (FDI). Though certainly related, these data are at best a proxy for the actual commercial and productive activities of multinationals that most political scientists purport to be interested in. Simply put, this is a very indirect way of testing theories about the sociopolitical and economic factors that motivate MNCs’ choice of host countries. This article introduces a new firm-level data set designed to get around this problem by permitting more direct analysis of multinationals’ foreign operations. It then revisits the relationship between regime type and direct investment, finding evidence that MNCs are more likely to establish new subsidiaries in democracies than in nondemocracies. However, further analysis reveals that the strength of this relationship varies by context. Specifically, MNCs rely on regime type as an indicator of political risk when they lack an existing relationship with the host state. In addition, those operating in extractive industries are generally less responsive to political institutions than those operating in manufacturing or services. These results suggest that firm- and sector-specific factors deserve greater consideration than they have been given in the existing literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Colin M. Barry, 2016. "Bringing the Company Back In: A Firm-Level Analysis of Foreign Direct Investment," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 244-270, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:42:y:2016:i:2:p:244-270
    DOI: 10.1080/03050629.2015.1065698
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03050629.2015.1065698
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03050629.2015.1065698?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. Bhagwati, Jagdish, 2007. "In Defense of Globalization: With a New Afterword," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195330939.
    2. Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2002. "Determinants of FDI in developing countries: has globalization changed the rules of the game?," Kiel Working Papers 1122, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    3. Singh, Harinder & Kwang W. Jun, 1995. "Some new evidence on determinants of foreign direct investment in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1531, The World Bank.
    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. Trotter, Philipp A. & Maconachie, Roy & McManus, Marcelle C., 2018. "Solar energy's potential to mitigate political risks: The case of an optimised Africa-wide network," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 108-126.
    2. Bailey, Nicholas & Warby, Brian, 2019. "Explaining the competition for FDI: Evidence from Costa Rica and cross-national industry-level FDI data," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 67-77.

    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. Mottaleb, Khondoker Abdul, 2007. "Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment and Its Impact on Economic Growth in Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 9457, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Bartels, Frank L. & Napolitano, Francesco & Tissi, Nicola E., 2014. "FDI in Sub-Saharan Africa: A longitudinal perspective on location-specific factors (2003–2010)," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 516-529.
    3. Green, Keith, 2005. "Foreign direct investment in the Indian telecommunications sector," MPRA Paper 18099, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Garavito-Acosta, Aarón Levi & Iregui-Bohórquez, Ana María & Ramírez-Giraldo, María Teresa, 2013. "Inversión extranjera directa en Colombia : evolución, indicadores y determinantes por firma," Chapters, in: Rincón-Castro, Hernán & Velasco, Andrés M. (ed.), Flujos de capitales, choques externos y respuestas de política en países emergentes, chapter 3, pages 83-136, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    5. Aarón Garavito A. & Ana María Iregui B. & María Teresa Ramírez G., 2012. "Determinantes de la inversión extranjera directa en Colombia: Un estudio a nivel de firma," Borradores de Economia 9672, Banco de la Republica.
    6. Oana Cristina POPOVICI & Adrian Cantemir CĂLIN & Diana IVANA & Sorin DAN, 2021. "FDI Determinants Revisited: Extensive Evidence," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(4), pages 103-123, December.
    7. Azzimonti, Marina, 2019. "Does partisan conflict deter FDI inflows to the US?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 162-178.
    8. Pal Sudeshna, 2011. "Media Freedom and Socio-Political Instability," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 1-23, March.
    9. Kolstad, Ivar & Villanger, Espen, 2008. "Determinants of foreign direct investment in services," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 518-533, June.
    10. Gohar S. Sedrakyan, 2018. "Can Tax Regulation and Administration Practices Impact Foreign Direct Investments?," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1812, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    11. Eckhard Janeba, 2001. "Global Corporations and Local Politics: A Theory of Voter Backlash," NBER Working Papers 8254, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Oji-Okoro Izuchukwu & Daniel Ofori, 2014. "Why South-South FDI is Booming: Case Study of China FDI in Nigeria," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 4(3), pages 361-376, March.
    13. Miroslav Mateev & Iliya Tsekov, 2014. "Are there any top FDI performers among EU-15 and CEE countries? A comparative panel data analysis," Financial Theory and Practice, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 38(3), pages 337-374.
    14. Polemis, Michael L. & Fafaliou, Irene, 2015. "Electricity regulation and FDIs spillovers in the OECD: A panel data econometric approach," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 110-123.
    15. Sakli Hniya & Ahlem Boubker & Fatma Mrad & Sawssen Nafti, 2021. "The Impact of Real Exchange Rate Volatility on Foreign Direct Investment Inflows in Tunisia," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 11(5), pages 52-67.
    16. Filomena Pietrovito & Alberto Franco Pozzolo & Luca Salvatici, 2016. "Internationalization choices: an ordered probit analysis at industry level," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 561-594, March.
    17. Cleeve, Emmanuel A. & Debrah, Yaw & Yiheyis, Zelealem, 2015. "Human Capital and FDI Inflow: An Assessment of the African Case," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-14.
    18. Fotini Economou & Christis Hassapis & Nikolaos Philippas & Mike Tsionas, 2017. "Foreign Direct Investment Determinants in OECD and Developing Countries," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 527-542, August.
    19. Salike, Nimesh, 2016. "Role of human capital on regional distribution of FDI in China: New evidences," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 66-84.

    More about this item

    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:taf:ginixx:v:42:y:2016:i:2:p:244-270. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GINI20 .

    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.