| This study seeks to explain the emergence of multinational firms from newly industrializing economies (NIEs) in terms of macro-micro determinants of foreign direct investments (FDIs). Manufacturing firms from Korea constitute the primary case study. Specifically, the study examines the comparative advantage of Korean firms, positive and negative location variables, and government policies and trends. Although there is considerable literature on third-world multinational corporations (TWMNCs), the bulk of the literature, so far, has not been rigorous in the sense of using both qualitative and quantitative techniques.; The sample for this study consisted of 49 firms chosen from 197 Korean manufacturing firms at the end of 1988. Both primary data (interviews and questionnaires) and secondary data (government publications and other related materials) were used.; Using qualitative analysis and several univariate and multivariate statistical techniques (factor analysis, MANOVA, canonical correlation, logistic regression, cluster analysis, Hotelling's T{dollar}sp2{dollar} test, independent T test, and Mann-Whitney U test), empirical research questions were considered to identify a set of comparative advantage and positive-negative location variables as well as associations between them; to test whether there is any significant difference between managers' perceptions of those two factors in relation to different investment features and the underlying reasons for such differences in perception; to examine the relative importance of the variables that differentiate the investment features; and to examine the impact of macroeconomic factors on the trend of FDI.; The findings indicated that macroeconomic forces have pressured firms with comparative advantages to look to FDI. Korean FDIs were found to have both similarities and sharp differences regarding FDI location factor and comparative advantages, as compared with other TWMNCs and MNCs generally. It has been noted that both comparative advantage and location factors explain the overseas expansion of Korea firms. |
