Location choices across the value chain:: How activity and capability influence collocation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Alcacer, Juan
• 署名单位: New York University
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1060.0658
• 发表日期: 2006
• 页码: 1457-1471
• 关键词: FDI; location choice; firm heterogeneity

摘要

There has been a recent revival of interest in the geographic component of firm strategy. Recent research suggests that two opposing forces-competition costs and agglomeration benefits-determine whether firms collocate in a given geographic market. Unexplored is (1) whether these forces have different impacts on R&D, production, and sales subsidiaries, leading to diverse collocation levels, and (2) how firm capabilities impact collocation by increasing or decreasing competition costs and agglomeration benefits. I explore these questions using the worldwide location decisions of firms in the cellular handset industry. I find that production and sales subsidiaries are more geographically dispersed, and R&D subsidiaries are more concentrated, than a random distribution would predict. When distinguishing firms by their capabilities, I find that more-capable firms collocate less than less-capable firms, regardless of the activity performed.