Influence of Host Countries' Country Risk Factors on Foreign Direct Investment Decision Making Process

本文探讨了日本对外直接投资的决定因素。分析特别关注日本企业是否考虑东道国的国家风险因素，包括经济脆弱性、社会脆弱性和政治不稳定性，以及与新的海外投资地点选择有关的决策过程。本文分析了推动企业对外投资的母国宏观经济变量的决定因素。第二个分析集中在企业财务绩效是否会对企业的FDI决策起到关键作用。第三个分析侧重于对外贸易与日本外国直接投资流出之间的关系，按工业类别和东道国分列。第四部分揭示了包括日本FDI在内的各种形式的国际资本流动与东道国国家风险评级得分之间的关系。第五，将总体国别风险评级（由15个国别风险评级组成）的各个组成部分纳入分析，进行统计分析，找出决定日本按产业部门进行FDI的金额和案例数的关键因素。最后进行类似的分析，找出影响FDI流出的关键区位特定变量。上述大多数分析主要是对1989- 1992年期间按工业类别涵盖35个最不发达国家和日本外国直接投资的数据集进行多元回归分析。主要发现包括：以往文献大多将FDI总量作为因变量进行分析，寻找日本FDI流出的决定因素。分析发现，这种方法扭曲了企业在FDI方面的实际行为。这是因为外国直接投资的平均数额和必要数额因工业部门而异。另一个重要发现表明，日本公司很少关注东道国的国家风险因素，尤其是政治风险因素。少

This paper discusses the determinant factors for Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI). The analysis in particular focuses whether Japanese firms consider the host countries' country risk elements including the economic vulnerabilities, social fragilities and political instabilities on the decision making process relating with location selection for new overseas investment.This paper analyzes the determinant factors among home country's macroeconomic variables which push firms invest abroad. The second analysis concentrates on corporate financial performance whether it would play a critical role for the firms' FDI decision making. The third analysis focuses on the relationship between external trade and Japan's FDI outflow, by industrial category and by host country. The forth analysis discloses the relationship between various forms of international capital flows including Japanese FDI and host country's country risk rating scores. In fifth, implementing each component of overall c … More ountry risk rating (composed of 15 components) into analysis, statistical analysis is conducted to find the critical factors which determine the amounts and the number of cases of FDI from Japan, by industrial sector. Finally similar analysis is conducted to find the critical location specific variables for FDI outflow.Most of these analysis mentioned above were mainly conducted with multh-regression analysis for the dataset coverd thirty-five LDCs and Japanese FDI during 1989-92, by industrial category.Main findings include : most of previous papers handled the total FDI amount as a dependent variable for the analyses to find the determinant factors for Japanese FDI outflow. This analysis finds such methodology distorts the firms' actual behavior in regard with FDI. This is bacause the average and necessary amounts of FDI would vary among industrial sectors. Another key finding suggests Japanese firms would pay little attention to the country risk factors so as to host countries, especially to the political risk factors. Less