Adaptive Business Location, Survival, and Sustainability in Transitional Market Economies

该项目通过空间或非空间（例如，在外国直接投资（FDI）进入后社会主义新兴市场国家的背景下，管理和运营方面的变化。 就前社会主义转型国家而言，外国直接投资主要来自西方国家，以获得劳动力和其他要素成本优势，这在过去十年中已经证明。 调查人员预计，企业应该成为更有效地在他们的位置选择后，经历了转型及其对他们的经营和市场的影响，但适应性行为在前社会主义设置在文献中得到的关注最少。 提出了一个适应过程的模型，认为原来的外国直接投资的位置作为一个良好的信息，新的市场，或一个基于不充分的评估的条件，影响了公司的业务。 无论哪种方式，一个公司都可以选择一个好的或坏的地点，从而可能需要通过管理或地点的改变来适应，除非它被系统“采纳”。 将根据公司的特点和可供选择的办法决定是留在原地还是迁往另一地点。 通过地点变化进行空间适应的例子可能包括集群，集群也可能是一种采用的形式，即其他公司聚集在一家最初的外国直接投资公司周围。 为了研究适应过程，本项目使用了早期NSF研究的幸存者，该研究是关于1991年苏联解体后进入波罗的海地区的北欧国家的原始外国直接投资公司。 它比较了适应趋势和原因与企业的特点，如规模，来源国，东道国设置，和最初的位置决定。 早期研究的数据将与每个幸存公司的当前数据进行比较。该项目将进一步了解企业在新环境中的适应行为。 通过选择在几乎同一时间进入快速变化和高风险的后苏联波罗的海地区的幸存者，该项目应有助于回答有关初始位置决定的重要性以及在新兴市场环境中生存所需的位置变化的一些问题。 调查人员还将能够确定集群的地理模式是否已经形成，以及这些模式是否被视为公司生存战略的重要因素。 对这些企业的纵向研究提供了一个独特的机会，研究在向市场经济过渡的头十年中的生存、适应和变化。 由于外国直接投资是转型期国家的一项重要发展战略，本项目还将为幸存公司的适应战略提供必要的证据，并说明在转型期的头十年需要进行变革的原因。 这项研究的更广泛的影响可能是，如果政府了解这些政策如何影响外国直接投资（和当地）公司，就可以制定更好的政策来缓解这些问题。

This project addresses the problem of business survival through spatial or non-spatial (e.g., management and operational) changes in the context of foreign direct investment (FDI) into post-socialist, emerging market countries. In the case of former socialist transition countries, FDI inflow is primarily from the west for labor and other factor cost advantages, as has been witnessed over the last decade. The investigators expect that firms should become more efficient in their location choice after experiencing the transition and its effect on their operations and markets, yet adaptive behavior in ex-socialist settings has received minimal attention in the literature. A model of the adaptation process is proposed that considers the original FDI location as one made with good information about the new market, or one based on inadequate assessment of the conditions that affected the firm's operation. Either way, a firm can choose a good or bad location, resulting in the possible need for adaptation through management or location change, unless it becomes "adopted" by the system. The decision to stay in place or move to another location will be made on the basis of firm characteristics and options available. Examples of spatial adaptation through location change may include clustering, or clustering may be a form of adoption where other firms gather around an original FDI company. To study the adaptation process, this project uses survivors from an earlier NSF study of the original FDI firms from Nordic countries that entered the Baltic region after Soviet collapse in 1991. It compares adaptation trends and reasons with firm characteristics such as size, source country, host setting, and original location decisions. Data from the earlier study will be compared with current data for each surviving company.The project will further basic understanding of adaptive behavior by firms in a new setting. By selecting survivors who entered the fast-changing and high-risk post-Soviet Baltic region at roughly the same time, the project should help answer some questions about the importance of initial location decisions and the need for location change to survive in the emerging market setting. The investigators also will be able to determine whether geographic patterns of clustering have developed and if these are viewed as important in the firms' survival strategies. The longitudinal study of these firms provides a unique opportunity to study survival, adaptation, and change during the first ten years of the transition to market economy. Because FDI is an important development strategy in transition countries, this project also will provide needed evidence of surviving companies' adaptive strategies and the reasons for needed changes during the first ten years of the transition. The broader impact of the study could be policies that are better designed to alleviate these problems if governments understand how they affect FDI (and local) firms.