• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.1-25
• /
• 2012

This paper is the first paper of two linked papers about the FDI of the economic infrastructure-related public companies. This paper analyzes overseas investments of infrastructure public companies which is characterized by state control and support of socio-economic facilities and services. In theoretical consideration the genealogy and characteristics of FDI are examined, and then global FDI trends since 1970, institutional changes and FDI trends in Korea are analyzed. This analysis shows that the globalization of large state-owned enterprises or public companies from developing and transition economies constitutes an important component of FDI and new emerging source of FDI. Finally the objects and strategies of large 10 infrastructure public companies are analyzed in perspectives of features having both advanced and developing economies type.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.47 no.6
• /
• pp.307-333
• /
• 2022

In recent years, the outward foreign direct investment (oFDI) in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by Chinese companies has significantly increased in size and changed in content. However, changes in the oFDI patterns between the pre- and post-BRI periods have not received sufficient attention from academia despite their theoretical and strategic significance. This paper reviewed existing research to establish seven hypotheses on changes in the oFDI patterns of Chinese companies investing in BRI countries and conducted empirical analyses to test the hypotheses using secondary data. The results showed that after the BRI agreement, Chinese oFDI in BRI countries was more active in less economically and less institutionally developed countries, that the oFDI by privately-owned enterprises (POEs) increased more than that of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and that SOEs were more active in the social overhead capital (SOC) area while POEs were more active in the non-SOC area. The paper concludes with a summary, implications, and future research directions.

• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.35-58
• /
• 2020

Purpose - This study examines the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) location choice for Chinese firms, focusing on the agglomeration effect for firms of the same nationality. Design/methodology - The empirical data are China's inward FDI from the top 19 economies (excluding tax havens and Taiwan) in terms of FDI during 1997-2015 and China's outward FDI from the top 18 economies (excluding tax havens). This study uses a random effects generalized least squares model for panel data analysis. Findings - The results confirm that both host countries' costs and market conditions and the degree of agglomeration affect these countries' attractiveness for FDI inflows. Specifically, agglomeration has a significant effect on China's inward and outward FDI. This study confirms that the agglomeration of firms of the same nationality has predictive power for multinational enterprises' FDI location choices. The host countries' real GDP and trade openness also positively affect FDI inflows. Interestingly, however, China's production cost has a positive effect. Thus, inward FDI aimed at entering the Chinese market is increasing in recent years relative to the previous efficiency-seeking FDI. Inward FDI in China is therefore the market-entry type, whereas outward FDI by Chinese firms is the market-oriented type. Originality/value - These results suggest that the effects of the potential determinants of Chinese outward FDI are similar to those of inward FDI as China's trade liberalization progresses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.28 no.910
• /
• pp.1341-1350
• /
• 2004

With the advent of the globalization trend of the industry, the enterprises in the fashion industry around the world have witnessed a surge in exports and foreign direct investment (FDI). Many fashion enterprises in each country, along with the multi-national enterprises, have engaged in global outsourcing of the production process in order to increase their global competitiveness, and have attempted to expand their commercial presence in the world market by entering into other foreign markets. Such market entry attempts have lead to the increase of FDI and trade by the fashion enterprises. This study attempts to examine the interactive relation between FDI and export/import of fashion products in different fashion industries both worldwide and in Korea. First, we will look into the relation between export/imports and FDI of each regional fashion industry, then expand the study to the relation between those two factors found in the fashion industry of Korea in general, and finally, to the relation between the two factors in the fashion industry of countries that are the major export nations of fashion goods into Korea. The data which this study is based on were collected from the International Trade Statistics Yearbook Vol. II (UN, 1991-2002, New York: UN), UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics (UN, 1996-2001, Vienna: UN), UNCTAD database, the archives of the Korea Federation of Textile Industry and the archives of the Export-Import Bank of Korea. The methods of analysis used in this study were correlation, regression, and descriptive statistics of the data. The result of this study showed that each fashion industry of different regions was subject to a diversity of effects. For one, the fashion industry in Korea showed a significant correlation between outbound investment and both export and import. On the other hand, the apparel industry in Korea showed a significant correlation between outbound investment and imports, but no such correlation between outbound investment and exports.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.1217-1230
• /
• 2021

Using a multinomial logit model with the panel-data set of Vietnam manufacturing firms, this paper investigates the impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI) - small and medium enterprises (SMEs) linkages and other factors on SMEs' participation in the global value chain (GVC). We consider GVC firms are those engaging in any of the three modes including (i) using domestic inputs to export (D2E), (ii) using imported inputs to produce for the domestic market (I2P), (iii) using imported inputs to export (I2E). We discover that FDI-SME linkages statistically encourage Vietnamese SMEs to integrate into the GVC via I2P and I2E, while no statistical association between FDI-SME linkage and D2E participation is found. GVCs participation likelihood is also positively correlated with the introduction of new product introduction. The establishment of firms' production facilities in industrial zones and foreign ownership are both reported to be significantly decisive factors to SMEs' decisions on GVC participation. Besides, there is a strong association between firms' attributes, i.e. employment, capital intensity as well as financial access, and their participation in the GVC. Local governance quality (proxied by the Provincial Competitiveness Index) and the share of skilled labor at the province-level can facilitate firms' integration into GVCs, while greater market concentration may be a hurdle to such potential.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.9 no.8
• /
• pp.109-121
• /
• 2022

The study empirically examines the horizontal spillover effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the productivity of Indian pharmaceutical firms. Robust least squares and the Generalized Method of Moments estimators are applied for the firm-level panel data of Indian pharmaceutical companies whose shares were traded on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The information was collected from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) Prowess database from 2015 to 2019. Based on the regularity in data availability, the sample firms are limited to 112 companies, 100 of which are domestic firms and 12 international firms. Firms with more than 10 percent foreign equity are classified as FDI firms, while those with less than that are classified as domestic firms. Estimation results show that foreign ownership does not contribute to the productivity of domestic firms. Due to increased competition, the Indian pharmaceutical companies with foreign equity participation are not more productive than local ones. Moreover, the findings reveal a negative and insignificant horizontal spillover effect from FDI on the productivity of domestic enterprises. The absence of horizontal spillovers may be attributable to foreign enterprises' ability to prevent technological outflow to competitors in the same industry.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.9 no.9
• /
• pp.143-156
• /
• 2022

This article examines the effect of inward foreign direct investments (FDI) on the export performance of micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India, and investigates the spillover impact and absorption capacity of the MSMEs sector. For the first time, the researchers applied the intersectoral linkage approach to investigate the matter and used a panel dataset between 2006 and 2017. The coefficients of forward and backward linkages are estimated by using the Rasmussen method, the study employs a basic linear panel data model, followed by various diagnostic tests to identify the problem of heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation / serial correlation, cross-sectional dependencies, multicollinearity, time-individual specific tests, and unobserved effects. The PCSE model was applied for robust standard error and the Hausman-Taylor IV model to check the robustness of the result generated in the linear panel data model. Despite the high prevalence of forward and backward intersectoral connections and the Lack of absorption capacity of local firms, the results show that FDI has little of an impact on the export performance of micro, small, and medium-sized businesses in India. This study adds to the existing literature on determining local firms' spillover effect and absorption capacity in response to inward FDI.

• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.37-59
• /
• 2021

Purpose - Although models of innovation and exporting dominate recent studies of relations between innovation and access to foreign markets, relations between innovation and foreign direct investment (FDI) are less explored. This is especially true of relations between types of innovation and FDI. We fill that gap in the literature with empirical evidence that clarifies whether firms enter foreign markets through exports or FDI. Design/methodology - In order to assess the role of innovation in firms' international engagement strategies, we develop research hypotheses and present new empirical evidence on firms' choice of entry - exports and FDI - based on firm-level data. Findings - Our empirical results suggest that the impact of product innovation is more significant in transition from being a purely domestic firm to an exporter, while process innovation more significantly affect transition from being an exporter to a multinational enterprise. Our results also support 'self-selection into FDI' rather than 'learning-by-performing FDI' in the relationship between innovation and firms' overseas expansion. Originality/value - Recent literature on the relationship between innovation and firms' participation in foreign markets is dominated by models of innovation and export behavior. However, foreign direct investment by multinational enterprises may also be associated with firms' innovative activities. We first analyze how product and process innovations influence firms' choices to initiate exports or FDI.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.155-175
• /
• 2018

This study estimates the technical efficiency and total factor productivity(TFP) of and analyzes the relationship between TFP and exports for Korean manufacturing companies from 2000 to 2016. Specially, TFP is decomposed into Technical Change(TC), Technical Efficiency Change (TEC), and Sale Effect(SE), and compared between large and small enterprises. First, in the case of technical efficiency, the Korean economy has been very vulnerable to external shocks, such as the sharp decline following the 2008 financial crisis. The efficiency of the electronics, automobile, and machinery sectors is low and needs to be improved. In addition, the technological efficiency of large enterprises is higher than that of SMEs in most manufacturing sub-sectors except for non-ferrous metals. In the case of TFP, most changes are due to TC, and the effective combination of labor, capital and the effect of scale have little effect, suggesting that improvement of internal structure is urgent. In addition, volatility due to the impact of the financial crisis in 2008 was much larger in SMEs than in large companies, so external economic impacts are more greater for SMEs than large enterprises. The relationship between TFP decomposition factors and exports shows that TC has a positive effect only on exports of SMEs. Therefore, in order to increase exports, in the case of SMEs, R&D support to promote technological development is needed. In the case of large companies, it is necessary to establish differentiated strategies for each export market, competitor company, and item to link efficiency and scale effect of exports.

• International Commerce and Information Review
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.77-109
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study is to review the current trend of FDIs by Korean companies into EU, and to present the optimal strategies for them to combine their firm-specific factors and FDI attractiveness of the regions in EU. The companies are divided into two categories, SMEs and large enterprises. The regions of EU are composed of 15 incumbent members before the fifth enlargement in 2004 and 12 new members. Large Korean companies tend to make large investments in 15 incumbent members with stable and mature markets. Korean SMEs, by contrast, mainly invest on small scales in the new members due to the lack of their available inner resources and knowledge for the markets. The main objects of the investments in EU by the large Korean companies are to gain more market share and to acquire the advanced technologies. Although such goals are also important for the SMEs, the most important objects for the investments by Korean SMEs in EU are usually to enter EU markets and to take advantage of the relatively cheap labor forces for the efficient operations. The effects of such passive strategies by the SMEs, however, are expected to extinct because the cost advantages in regions of the new EU members will not last in the long term, so the SMEs must take longer views for the choice of locations. Many empirical results suggest that the optimal FDI strategies for the Korean companies in EU could be worked mainly by more aggressive localization policy of companies and by the cooperations of SMEs and large enterprises for the reduction in costs of foreignness.