Host-Country Determinants of the Market Strategies of US Companies' Overseas Subsidiaries

Abstract

As compeition in many industries becomes increasingly global, MNEs have found that import-substitution subsidiaries, focusing on the supply of national markets, are much less viable. In the pursuit of enhanced competitiveness through export-oriented subsidiaries, MNEs are also finding that relying on low-cost host-country inputs to produce established productss is also a limited strategy. The more dynamic strategy of allowing subsidiaries to use a wider range of creative local inputs to take full responsibility for the development, production and international marketing of distinctive new products is a more effective approach. Such an upgrading of the subsidiaries' role within the MNE often parallels the aims of host-country governments to achieve a more individual and dynamic basis for their country's evolving comparative advantage. It is thus argued that MNE subsidiaries and host countries can go through a mutually supportive period of creative transition, endowing both with a new level of technological dynamism and independence. The paper tests aspects of these arguments by analysing the host-country determinants of the degree of export-orientation of US MNEs' overseas subsidiaries.