Title: The development of location decision factors as a critical managerial procedure involved in the foreign investment decision-making process: three exploratory case studies

Authors: Marwan N. Al Qur'an

Addresses: Department of Management and Marketing, College of Industrial Management (CIM), King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, KFUPM P.O. Box 841, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: Identifying appropriate location decision factors is, hypothetically, claimed to be an imperative managerial procedure involved in the foreign investment decision-making process. As an attempt to provide insight into this critical issue, three comparative case studies of Western Australian internationalising service firms were undertaken. The empirical results show that three types of location decision factors or criteria were developed by location decision-makers at three stages of the country-selection process; that is, the country, city and site factors. The findings also reveal that the identification of these location factors contributed significantly to arriving at successful foreign direct investments and, accordingly, confirmed the theoretical assertion stated in the literature. As a result, these findings have significant theoretical and practical implications to the location strategy in international business.

Keywords: case studies; country selection process; FDI; foreign direct investment; international operations; location decisions; decision making; service firms; Australia; location strategy; international business..

DOI: 10.1504/JIBED.2009.022534

Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 2009 Vol.4 No.1/2, pp.147 - 159

Published online: 14 Jan 2009 *

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