IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedbwp/12-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Core competencies, matching, and the structure of foreign direct investment: an update

Author

Listed:
  • Federico J. Diez
  • Alan C. Spearot

Abstract

We develop a matching model of foreign direct investment to study how multinational firms choose between greenfield investment, acquisitions, and joint ownership. Firms must invest in a continuum of tasks to bring a product to market. Each firm possesses a core competency in the task space, but the firms are otherwise identical. For acquisitions and joint ownership, a multinational enterprise (MNE) must match with a local partner that may provide complementary expertise within the task space. However, under joint ownership, investment in tasks is shared by multiple owners and hence is subject to a holdup problem that varies with contract intensity. In equilibrium, ex ante identical multinationals enter the local matching market, and ex post, three different types of heterogeneous firms arise. Specifically, the worst matches are forgone and the MNEs invest greenfield; the middle matches operate under joint ownership; and the best matches integrate via full acquisition. We link the firm-level model to cross-country and industry predictions related to development and contract intensity, respectively, where greater contract intensity and a relatively more developed target market yield a higher share of full acquisitions. Using data on partial and full acquisitions across industries and countries, we find robust support for both predictions.

Suggested Citation

  • Federico J. Diez & Alan C. Spearot, 2012. "Core competencies, matching, and the structure of foreign direct investment: an update," Working Papers 12-8, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedbwp:12-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.bostonfed.org/economic/wp/wp2012/wp1208.htm
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.bostonfed.org/economic/wp/wp2012/wp1208.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Volker Nocke & Stephen Yeaple, 2008. "An Assignment Theory of Foreign Direct Investment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(2), pages 529-557.
    2. Raff, Horst & Ryan, Michael & Stähler, Frank, 2009. "The choice of market entry mode: Greenfield investment, M&A and joint venture," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 3-10, January.
    3. V.N. Balasubramanyam, 2008. "Foreign Direct Investment," Chapters, in: Amitava Krishna Dutt & Jaime Ros (ed.), International Handbook of Development Economics, Volumes 1 & 2, volume 0, chapter 39, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Bruce A. Blonigen & Lionel Fontagné & Nicholas Sly & Farid Toubal, 2019. "Cherries for Sale: The Incidence and Timing of Cross-border M&A," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foreign Direct Investment, chapter 4, pages 121-177, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Alan C. Spearot, 2012. "Firm Heterogeneity, New Investment and Acquisitions," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 1-45, March.
    6. Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 2005. "Outsourcing in a Global Economy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(1), pages 135-159.
    7. Arnold, Jens Matthias & Javorcik, Beata Smarzynska, 2005. "Gifted kids or pushy parents? Foreign acquisitions and plant performance in Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3597, The World Bank.
    8. Kogut, Bruce, 1989. "The Stability of Joint Ventures: Reciprocity and Competitive Rivalry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 183-198, December.
    9. Desai, Mihir A. & Foley, C. Fritz & Hines, James Jr., 2004. "The costs of shared ownership: Evidence from international joint ventures," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 323-374, August.
    10. Breinlich, Holger, 2008. "Trade liberalization and industrial restructuring through mergers and acquisitions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 254-266, December.
    11. Nocke, Volker & Yeaple, Stephen, 2007. "Cross-border mergers and acquisitions vs. greenfield foreign direct investment: The role of firm heterogeneity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 336-365, July.
    12. Sinha, Uday Bhanu, 2001. "International joint venture, licensing and buy-out under asymmetric information," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 127-151, October.
    13. Bircan, Çağatay, 2011. "Optimal Degree of Foreign Ownership under Uncertainty," Working Papers 617, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marc-Andreas Muendler, 2014. "Export or merge? Proximity vs. concentration in product space," Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 35-57, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Federico J. Díez & Alan C. Spearot, 2014. "Core competencies, matching and the structure of foreign direct investment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(3), pages 813-855, August.
    2. Antrà s, Pol & Yeaple, Stephen R., 2014. "Multinational Firms and the Structure of International Trade," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 55-130, Elsevier.
    3. Stiebale, Joel, 2016. "Cross-border M&As and innovative activity of acquiring and target firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1-15.
    4. Stiebale, Joel & Vencappa, Dev, 2018. "Acquisitions, markups, efficiency, and product quality: Evidence from India," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 70-87.
    5. Ronald B. Davies & Rodolphe Desbordes & Anna Ray, 2015. "Greenfield versus Merger & Acquisition FDI: Same Wine, Different Bottles?," Working Papers 201503, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    6. Shafik Hebous & Martin Ruf & Alfons J. Weichenrieder & Alfons Weichenrieder, 2010. "The Effects of Taxation on the Location Decision of Multinational Firms: M&A vs. Greenfield Investments," CESifo Working Paper Series 3076, CESifo.
    7. Ray Chaudhuri, A., 2014. "Acquisitions by Multinationals and Trade Liberalization," Discussion Paper 2014-006, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    8. repec:lic:licosd:31812 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Federico J. Diez & Alan C. Spearot, 2011. "Core competencies and the structure of foreign direct investment," Working Papers 11-13, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    10. Ray Chaudhuri, A., 2011. "Cross-Border Mergers and Market Segmentation (Replaces CentER DP 2010-096)," Discussion Paper 2011-112, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    11. Van Biesebroeck, Johannes & Zhang, Lijun, 2014. "Interdependent product cycles for globally sourced intermediates," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 143-156.
    12. Alviarez, Vanessa, 2019. "Multinational production and comparative advantage," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 1-54.
    13. Amrita Ray Chaudhuri, 2014. "Cross-Border Mergers and Market Segmentation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 229-257, June.
    14. Patrik Karpaty & Patrik Gustavsson Tingvall, 2015. "Offshoring and Home Country R&D," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 655-676, April.
    15. Monastyrenko, Evgenii, 2017. "Eco-efficiency outcomes of mergers and acquisitions in the European electricity industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 258-277.
    16. Maria Guadalupe & Olga Kuzmina & Catherine Thomas, 2012. "Innovation and Foreign Ownership," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3594-3627, December.
    17. Becker, Johannes & Fuest, Clemens, 2011. "Tax competition -- Greenfield investment versus mergers and acquisitions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 476-486, September.
    18. Arulampalam, Wiji & Devereux, Michael P. & Liberini, Federica, 2019. "Taxes and the location of targets," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 161-178.
    19. Steven Brakman & Harry Garretsen & Michiel Gerritse & Charles van Marrewijk & Charles van Marrewijk, 2018. "A Model of Heterogeneous Firm Matches in Cross-Border Mergers & Acquisitions," CESifo Working Paper Series 7083, CESifo.
    20. Pol Antràs & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2009. "Organizations and Trade," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 43-64, May.
    21. Haruka Takayama, 2021. "Greenfield or Brownfield? FDI Entry Mode and Intangible Capital," Discussion Paper Series DP2021-24, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Investments; Foreign; International business enterprises;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedbwp:12-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Spozio (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbbous.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.