the home country operations of the corporations. From the perspective of exploring the home country effects, it may be most relevant to distinguish between horizontal and vertical FDI. The former seeks to exploit the existing advantages of the MNC, while the latter augments the advantages of the corporation, exploiting lower factor prices abroad or reducing transactions costs by internalizing upstream or downstream activities (i.e. raw material supplies or marketing channels). A special case of vertical FDI that has recently been discussed concerns technology seeking investments that aim to gain access to existing intangible assets or the capacity to create such assets in the future.3 At first glance, such investments may seem to be exceptions from the rule that the investing firm needs some intangible assets to become multinational: the idea may even be to access technologies and knowledge needed to establish entirely new types of activities. However, it is likely that nearly all technology seeking investments are made by firms that possess some firm specific advantages that allow them to pay a price that exceeds the reservation cost of the initial owner of the assets. These advantages may, for instance, be related to specific market knowledge about the home market, where the technology is to be used. The exceptions are likely to be related to cases where the investing company is subsidized by its government, or where the objective of the investment is something else than higher profitability.
Some other distinctions between different types of FDI may also be relevant. For instance, there may be differences between greenfield affiliates (that are established by the investing MNC) investments and affiliates established through the acquisition of existing production units in the host country. It is possible that effects differ between manufacturing and services. The relation between the source country and the home country – in terms of trade policies, factor prices, transport costs, and industry structures – may be important. The time dimension may matter, with different effects in the short run and in the long run. Although some of the implications of these distinctions can be determined ex ante, it is not possible to make any strong generalizations on the basis of theory alone. Instead, it is necessary to examine the available empirical evidence to see what generalizations are feasible.
the home country operations of the corporations. From the perspective of exploring the home country effects, it may be most relevant to distinguish between horizontal and vertical FDI. The former seeks to exploit the existing advantages of the MNC, while the latter augments the advantages of the corporation, exploiting lower factor prices abroad or reducing transactions costs by internalizing upstream or downstream activities (i.e. raw material supplies or marketing channels). A special case of vertical FDI that has recently been discussed concerns technology seeking investments that aim to gain access to existing intangible assets or the capacity to create such assets in the future.3 At first glance, such investments may seem to be exceptions from the rule that the investing firm needs some intangible assets to become multinational: the idea may even be to access technologies and knowledge needed to establish entirely new types of activities. However, it is likely that nearly all technology seeking investments are made by firms that possess some firm specific advantages that allow them to pay a price that exceeds the reservation cost of the initial owner of the assets. These advantages may, for instance, be related to specific market knowledge about the home market, where the technology is to be used. The exceptions are likely to be related to cases where the investing company is subsidized by its government, or where the objective of the investment is something else than higher profitability.
Some other distinctions between different types of FDI may also be relevant. For instance, there may be differences between greenfield affiliates (that are established by the investing MNC) investments and affiliates established through the acquisition of existing production units in the host country. It is possible that effects differ between manufacturing and services. The relation between the source country and the home country – in terms of trade policies, factor prices, transport costs, and industry structures – may be important. The time dimension may matter, with different effects in the short run and in the long run. Although some of the implications of these distinctions can be determined ex ante, it is not possible to make any strong generalizations on the basis of theory alone. Instead, it is necessary to examine the available empirical evidence to see what generalizations are feasible.
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