Restructuring of the Polish Passenger Car Industry through Foreign Direct Investment

A U.S.-based geographer discusses the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Polish passenger car industry. The paper illustrates the magnitude of enterprise restructuring and changes in a significant economic sector. Using the case study approach, the author focuses on three of the largest foreign-owned passenger car makers in Poland: Fiat Auto Poland, Daewoo-FSO, and Opel Polska. He then considers FDI in the rest of the Polish automobile industry, noting inter alia Poland's proximity to West European markets and the country's low-cost labor. The case studies, based in part on recent interviews, discuss investment policies, enterprise restructuring, production trends, and effects of FDI in the supplier bases of car makers. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D20, F21, L62. 6 figures, 1 table, 76 references.     

我国地理学关于跨国投资的研究进展

本文运用科学计量法与文献研究法,对我国地理学界关于跨国投资的研究进行了综述,发现我国学界在投资时空演变格局、区位选择、驱动因素与效应等方向取得了较为显著的进展,近年来研究的国际化趋势明显。目前中国已经从单纯的外资输入发展为引进与输出结合的双向投资结构,中国的对外投资是近 10年近年的热门话题。 总体而言,相关研究以实证分析为主,经历了从单一理论的借鉴到多理论的整合,视角更多元、内容更多样、方法更综合。空间视角下的计量分析方法和可视化表达是当前跨国投资研究较为热门的方法。未来的研究仍需理论创新,对西方主导的研究视角进行批判性思考,突出地理学科特色。     

Russia's Inward and Outward Foreign Direct Investment: Insights into the Economy

A prominent British economist reviews the recent growth, partner-country composition, and sector composition of foreign direct investment in and out of Russia from a comparative international perspective, based on UNCTAD and Central Bank of Russia data as well as selected case studies. Two hypotheses are tested: that foreign policy significantly affects the host-country pattern of Russia's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and that domestic institutions significantly impact the host-country pattern of Russia's OFDI and the sectoral pattern of its inward foreign direct investment (IFDI). Quantitative evidence of foreign-policy influence could not be found, while domestic institutional influences do appear to be present, most notably in the form of system-escaping OFDI.     

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT FROM CANADA: AN OVERVIEW

Foreign direct investment (fdi) research on Canada has historically been centred on incoming rather than outgoing controlling capital. Yet the activities of Canada-based multinational enterprises (mne) have fostered an impressive outflow of direct investment abroad. To appreciate the importance of Canada's mne, one must understand the spatial and functional characteristics of Canadian parent companies and their foreign direct investments. To realize this goal, a sample of more than 17 000 examples of Canadian fdi (at various points in time) has been retrieved and analyzed. Spatially, the favourite target of Canadian outward fdi has been the United States and then the United Kingdom, but significant agglomerations of Canadian controlling capital can be found in many parts of the world (particularly in Western Europe, the Caribbean region, Australia, and Brazil, and in various Asian destinations). The locations of Canadian parent companies have been heavily biased toward the largest metropolitan cities. Additionally, multinational enterprises headquartered in Toronto and Montreal control (by far) the most foreign subsidiaries. In general, manufacturing, financial, and mining activities have constituted the most important endeavours of Canadian multinationals abroad. This pattern of functional emphasis, however, does vary with each specific location. Through a stepwise regression procedure, it was determined that market, trade (with Canada), labour, and crime conditions were critical place-specific criteria that affected the spatial decisions of Canadian direct investors. Par le passé, la recherche sur les investissements directs à I‘étranger (ide) du Canada a été axée sur les entrées de capital de contrôle plutôt que sur les sorties. Pourtant, les activés d'entreprises multinationales basées au Canada ont engendré“un flot impressionnant d'investissements directs à l’étranger. Pour appécier l'importance des entreprises multinationales du Canada, on doit comprendre les caractéristiques géographiques et fonctionnelles des compagnies mères canadiennes, et leurs investissements directs à l'étranger. Pour atteindre cet objectif, un échantillon de plus de 17 000 exemples de ide canadiens (à différents moments) a été choisi et analysé. Géographiquement, la cible favorite des ide canadiens vers l'extérieur a été les États-Unis, puis le Royaume-Uni, mais on retrouve d'importantes concentrations de capital de contrôle canadien en plusieurs autres parties du monde (surtout en Europe occidentale, dans la région des Caraïbes, en Australie, au Brésil etdans diverses destinations asiatiques). Pour le choix de la localisation de leurs sièges sociaux, les compagnies mères canadiennes ont nettement favorisé les plus grandes métropoles. De plus, ce sont les entreprises multinationales dont les sièges sociaux sont à Toronto et à Montréal qui gèrent la plupart (et de loin) des filiates étrangères. En général, les activités manufacturieres, financieres et minieres ont const'itue“la plus importante part des projets des multinationales canadiennes à l‘étranger. Cette tendance varie cependant selon les endroits. Par un modèle de régression, il a étéétabli que les conditions de marché, de commerce (avec le Canada), de travail et de criminalitéétaient des critères décisifs qui affectaient les choix géographiques des investisseurs canadiens. Mots-clés: investissements directs à I'étranger, entreprises multinationales du Canada     

Resource nationalism or resource liberalism? Explaining Australia's approach to Chinese investment in its minerals sector

Since 2005, a burgeoning wave of Chinese investments has set off a new ‘minerals boom’ in the Australian iron ore and coal mining sectors. While normally a welcome development, the state-owned and strategic nature of the investors has raised concerns in Australia about how these should be regulated. As a result, in February 2008 the Australian government declared an intention to more closely screen foreign direct investment (FDI) from state-owned sources, which both supporters and detractors alike have claimed is evidence of ‘resource nationalism’ in Australia's approach towards its trade and investment relationships with China. This article challenges this understanding through an examination of the characteristics of Chinese mining FDI, the dilemmas these present to the Australian government, and the relatively restrained nature of its response. Through this, Australia's FDI policy is explained as a defensive move against the potential for strategic behaviour by Chinese investors resulting from their state ownership, rather than any national program to subject minerals trade and investment to political control. On this basis, the article argues that Australian government policy instead evidences a ‘resource liberalism’ approach, which intends to ensure that the governance of Australia's minerals trade and investment with China remain market-based processes.     

海外华资对侨乡的投资探讨--以广东侨乡为例

包括港澳台资本及东南亚等地的华人华侨资本在内的海外华资,一直是中国外资引入的主力军,对中国大陆,尤其是广东侨乡的发展起了巨大的推动作用.本文以广东侨乡为例,论述了海外华资对侨乡的投资进程,并从国际直接投资理论出发,试对这一资本流入进程进行理论阐释.而且,通过对广东侨乡的分析,探讨海外华资投资所带来的经济发展效应.     

Myth of the Triad? The Geography of Trade and Investment 'Blocs'

The notion that the world is increasingly divided into a triad of economic regions based on North America, the European Union and Japan has become a form of conventional wisdom across a range of disciplines. However, despite the near ubiquitous use of the idea of a triadized world, it remains a somewhat normative assertion, the empirical existence of which has yet to be demonstrated. By using the intramax method to analyze the intensity of international trade and foreign direct investment flows during 1985 and 1995, we examine the changing shape of trade and investment 'blocs' globally. We find that while international trade is increasingly organized around fewer world regions, the presumed outcome of a triad-based world economy remains questionable. We further show that investment intensity patterns do not currently conform to any bloc-like formation, but exhibit instead, globally diffused network regions.     

The Global Economic Crisis and Foreign Investment in Russia from the EU: Empirical Evidence from Firm-Level Data

This paper empirically examines the impact of the recent global economic crisis on foreign investment from EU countries in Russia by estimating a location choice model for foreign firms' entry in Russian regions for the period 1997-2011. It also examines the relative importance of various determinants of location choice on the redistribution of foreign-owned firms among Russian regions before and after the crisis. Strong evidence during the post-crisis period (2008-2011) of a decrease in market-seeking foreign investment in manufacturing and resource-seeking foreign investment in trade is examined not only in light of the crisis but also (in the latter case) within the context of the new Russian law for foreign investment in strategic industries, which went into effect in 2008.     

Are smart cities global cities? A European perspective

Typical of the 1990s, the global cities phenomenon preceded the past decade’s massive spread of smart cities. Yet the question of how the two phenomena currently coincide remains to be considered, as well as an analysis based on viewing smart cities as global cities. An analysis related to the European scenario is developed in this article, aimed at giving a response to the previous considerations. An index is also proposed; concerning the global character of the cities, it considers the ability of the cities to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). Results of the proposed analysis show that in Europe four main scenarios exist. Two regarding positive and negative correlations between the diffusion of global and smart cities, and another two scenarios demonstrate cases in which the two features are not correlated. The first two cases are respectively related to smart cities that are also global cities. The last two cases deal with the presence of different drivers that are not related to smart urban plans, which could, however, drive the attraction of FDI or which could also promote smart actions without the thrust of FDI. Correlation and regression analyses complement the work.     

Foreign Banking in China: A Study of 279 Branch Units in 32 Cities

Two China-based geographers examine the gradual relaxation of restrictions on the activity of foreign banks in China as a prelude to a more focused investigation of the concentrated locational pattern of foreign banking in that country. The study, which embraces 32 Chinese cities, emphasizes the factors that have attracted foreign banks to particular cities and regions of China, including the existence of special banking opportunities, the so-called "follow-the customer" strategy, externalities associated with major financial centers such as Beijing and Shanghai, relaxed banking regimes in particular urban centers and special economic zones, and exposure to international trade and to a variety of foreign business enterprises. The locational preferences of foreign banks in relation to their countries of origin are addressed in some detail.