The Strategy of Korean Multinational Enterprises – Multiple versus Single plant

Using firm-level panel data for Korean MNEs, we make a distinction between being the only affiliate of a parent firm and being the one of the multiple affiliates of a parent firm. Comparisons of correlations between purchases and sales of each group of the foreign affiliates show distinctive difference in the motivations of FDI and the multinational activities, due to the difference in the number of affiliates they possess. Our main empirical results in this paper suggest that productive Korean MNEs not only enlarge their host countries of FDI but also enlarge the number of affiliates in a same host country. We interpret these FDIs are motivated by enjoying information and network advantages by gathering in one location.

Keywords:

Foreign Direct Investment , Multinationals , Firm eterogeneity , Location Decision