1
Q
What is FDI?
A
Occurs when a firm invests directly into facilities to produce or market a product in a foreign county
2
Q
What is offshore production?
A
FDI undertaken to serve the home market
3
Q
Why is FDI more favourable to exporting?
A
- High transport costs
- Trade barriers
4
Q
Why is FDI more favourable to licensing?
A
- Internalisation Theory/Market imperfections approach
- Seeks to explain why firms often prefer FDI over licensing: three major drawbacks
5
Q
What are the drawback in the Internalisation Theory/Market imperfections approach?
A
- Protection of tech know-how
- Retention of strategic control
- Firm might want its foreign operation to price and market very aggressively which might be at odds with a licensee
- Firm might want to take advantage of differences in factor costs and specialise one part of production in a given country and importing the rest from elsewhere, a licensee would probably not accept this lack of autonomy
- Capabilities not suiabilte for licensing
- Loss of efficiency etc.
6
Q
Why is FDI more favourable to franchising?
A
- Brand image
- Quality control
- Learning
- Market access
7
Q
What has been the trend in FDI ?
A
Over the past 30 years has grown more than the growth in world trade and world output
8
Q
What kinds of FDI are there?
A
- Acquisition
* Greenfield
9
Q
What is acquisition?
A
- Form of FDI
- Purchase of foreign firm
- Only 1/3rd of FDI in developing countries takes this form
10
Q
What are the advantages of acquisition?
A
- Immediate access to/control over tangible/intangible resources, management, employees, customers
- Preempt competitors
- May be less risky than greenfield
11
Q
What are the disadvantages of acquisition?
A
- Price
- Data shows firms tend to pay more than market price
- Managers are often too oprimisic about the value that can be created
- Class of cultures
- Potential host government restrictions
12
Q
What is greenfield investment?
A
- Form of FDI?
- Establishment of new firm
13
Q
What are the advantages of greenfield investment?
A
- Location selection
- Own culture and practices
- Gradual acclimatisation - test the market
- Often chearper
- Often encouraged by government
14
Q
What are the disadvantages of greenfield investment?
A
- Time to build market share
- Risk
15
Q
Why has FDI grown?
A
- Fear of protectionism
- Political and economic changes
- New bilateral investment treaties
- Globalisation
16
Q
What is Dunning’s Eclectic Paradigm?
A
- A firm undertakes FDI when location, ownership control and internalisation (efficiency) advantages combine to make a location appealing
- Location-Specific Advantages
- The advantages that arise from utilising resource endowments or assets that are tied to a particular foreign location and that a firm finds valuable to combine with its own unique assets
- Silicon Valley
17
Q
How can FDI be a strategic/imitative behaviour?
A
- Motivation: Market Power
- A firm tries to establish a dominant market presence in an industry by undertaking FDI
- Evident in oligopoly’s
- Multipoint competition
- Vertical integration
18
Q
What is multipoint competition?
A
- Knickerbocker - Strategic Behaviour
- Arises when two or more enterprises encounter each other in different regional markets, national markets or industries
- Economic theory suggests that firms will try to match each other’s moves in different markets to try to hold each other in check - ensure that a rival does not gain a commanding position in one market and then sue the profits generated there to subsidise competitive attacks in other markets
19
Q
What is vertical integration and what are the risks and alternatives?
A
- Extension of a firm’s activities into stages of production that 1. provides a firms inputs (backward or downstream integration) or 2. absorb its output (forward or upstream integration)
- Risks
- High costs
- Changes in technology
- Unpredictability of demand
- Alternatives
- Competitive bidding: issues related to distrust
- Strategic alliances: long term arrangements or JVs
- Tapered integration for unpredictability of demand
20
Q
What are the core political ideologies regarding FDI?
A
- Radical View
- Free Market View
- Pragmatic Nationalism
21
Q
What is the radical view of FDI?
A
- Marxist
- MNE’s are instruments of imperialist domination - extract profits from host country and take them to their home country, giving nothing of value to host country in exchange
22
Q
What is the free market view of FDI?
A
- MNE’s are an instrument for dispersing the production of goods and services to the most efficient locations around the globe
- In this way FDI by MNE’s increases the overall efficiency of the world economy
- Gains from technology, skills and capital and stimulation of economic growth for host country
23
Q
What is the pragmatic nationalism view of FDI?
A
- FDI can benefit a host country by bringing capital, skills, tech and jobs, but those benefits come at the cost of expatriated profits
- View says that benefits should outweigh the costs
- Lends itself to aggressive courting of FDI believed to be in national interest
24
Q
What are the benefits of FDI for the host country?
A
- Resources transfer effects
- Employment effects
- Balance of payments effects
- Effects on competition and economic growth
25
What are the costs of FDI for the host country?
* Adverse effects of FDI on competition within the host nation
* Adverse effects on the balance of payments
- Perceived loss of national sovereignty and autonomy
26
What resource transfer effects of FDI provide benefits to the host country?
Capital, tech, management resources, R&D
27
What are the positive employment effects of FDI for the host country?
- Job “transfer”, not necessarily creation - net effect from home country lost jobs
- Mergers and Acquisitions tend to lead to downsizing in the short term, however research suggest that once the initial restructuring is over, MNEs tend to increase their employment base at a fast rate than domestic rivals
28
What are the positive BoP effects of FDI for the host country?
If FDI is a substitute for imports of goods or services, or when the MNE uses a foreign subsidiary to export goods to other countries, the effect can be to strengthen the current account
29
What are the positive effects on competition and growth of FDI for the host country?
When FDI is Greenfield, an increased number of firms increases competition
30
What are the negative effects of of FDI on competition in the host nation?
- May have greater economic power than indigenous competitors - may be able to draw on funds generated elsewhere to subsidise its costs in the host market and drive out competition
- Especially valid in Mergers and Acquisitions
31
What are the negative BoP effects of FDI for the host country?
Outflows of earnings show up as capital outflow, and if inputs are imported for production this is a current account debit
32
Why might the host country restrict FDI inflows?
- Impact on BoP: profit outflows
| - Fear: FDI reduced economic independence
33
How might the host country restrict FDI inflows?
- Ownership restrictions: strategic industries
- Performance demands: local content and/or export requirements, tech transfer, local participation in top management
- Expatriation restrictions
34
Why might the host country promote FDI inflows?
- FDI pays for BoP deficit
- New exports
- Import substiution
- New tech, management know-how, employment
35
How might the host country restrict FDI inflows?
- Financial incentives
| - Infrastructure improvements
36
What are the benefits of FDI to the home country?
- Effect of capital account
- Inward flow of foreign earnings
- Can stimulate BoP if foreign subsidiary creates demand for home country exports of capital, intermediate or complementary goods
- Employment effects
- Indirect through raised economic growth
- If foreign subsidiary creates demand for him country exports
- Gains from learning valuable skills
37
What are the costs of FDI to the home country?
- National balance of payments can suffer
- Initial capital outflow required to finance FDI
- Current account suffers if the purpose of FDI is to serve the home market from a low-cost production location, or if it is a substitute for direct exports to the host country
- Employment
38
Why might the home country restrict FDI outflows?
- Damages BoP position
- Reduces investment, employment, exports of finished goods
- Bad international relations
39
How might the home country restrict FDI outflows?
- Capital outflow restrictions
- Differential tax rates
- Sanctions
40
Why might the home country promote FDI outflows?
- Long-run competiveness
- Accelerating the decline of sunset industries
- Increased exports of key product components
- Good international relations
41
How might the home country promote FDI outflows?
- Risk insurance for FDI
- Loans to firms engaging in FDI
- Tax breaks on profits earned abroad
- Political pressure on other countries
42
When do firms have the most bargaining power in regards to FDI?
- Host government values what the firm has to offer
- Firm has multiple comparable alternatives
- Firm has a long time to complete negotiations
BUSI2025
flashcards
Decks in class (12)
# Cards
-
Globalisation10
-
Political Environments & International Business34
-
Economic Environments and International Business12
-
Culture and International Business35
-
Ethics29
-
International Trade60
-
FDI42
-
Regional Economic Integration20
-
Foreign Exchange Markets35
-
International Monetary System34
-
Strategy and Organisation of International Firms55
-
Entry Strategies and Strategic Alliances38
