The Location Decision of the Multinational Firm: A Survey

Abstract

In the international business literature location has traditionally been analyzed using Dunning's (1977) OLI framework, which focuses on the perspective of the multinational firm. However, another strand of literature has focused on the perspective of the host location. In this paper the current state of the literature with respect to these two perspectives is surveyed. An attempt is made to assess the interactions of the two perspectives with a view to developing a complete picture of the location of multinational activity. A revised version of this paper has appeared as Mudambi, R. amd McCann, P., Analytical differences in the economics of geography: The case of the multinational firm, Environment and Planning A, vol.37(10), pp.1857-1876, 2005.

Keywords: multinational firms, investment location, NGOs, MNC-government relations

JEL Classification: F23, F13, D78