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

本项目通过外国直接投资（FDI）进入后社会主义新兴市场国家的背景下的空间或非空间（如管理和运营）变化来解决企业生存问题。就前社会主义转型国家而言，外国直接投资流入主要是来自西方的劳动力和其他要素成本优势，正如过去十年所看到的那样。研究者期望企业在经历了转型及其对其运营和市场的影响后，在区位选择上应该变得更有效率，然而，前社会主义环境中的适应性行为在文献中得到的关注很少。提出了一种适应过程的模型，该模型认为，最初的外国直接投资地点是根据有关新市场的良好信息作出的，或者是基于对影响公司经营的条件的不充分评估作出的。无论哪种方式，企业都可以选择一个好的或坏的位置，从而可能需要通过管理或位置变化来适应，除非它被系统“采用”。是留在原地还是搬到另一个地方，将根据公司的特点和现有的选择作出决定。通过地点变化进行空间适应的例子可能包括集群，或者集群可能是其他公司聚集在原始外国直接投资公司周围的一种采用形式。为了研究适应过程，本项目使用了早期NSF对1991年苏联解体后进入波罗的海地区的北欧国家原始外国直接投资公司的研究中的幸存者。它将适应趋势和原因与企业特征（如规模、来源国、东道国设置和原始地点决策）进行比较。早期研究的数据将与每个幸存公司的当前数据进行比较。该项目将进一步加深对企业在新环境下适应性行为的基本理解。通过选择在大致相同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策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。对这些公司的纵向研究提供了一个独特的机会来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国家的一项重要发展战略，本项目还将提供必要的证据，证明幸存公司的适应性战略以及转型前十年所需变革的原因。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，那么这项研究的更广泛影响可能是更好地设计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.