ESMAN: An Expert System for Manufacturing Site Selection

Abstract

Since the establishment of the Office of Foreign Investment in 1975 in the United States Department of Commerce, foreign inward direct investments in the U.S. have rapidly increased. Foreign inward direct investments include those of nonbank U.S. affiliates of foreign companies. A U.S. affiliate is a U.S. business enterprise in which there is foreign direct investment; that is, in which a single foreign person owns or controls, directly or indirectly, ten percent or more of the voting securities of an incorporated business enterprise or an equivalent interest in an unincorporated business enterprise (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1985). In 1984, non-Americans had 527.6 billion dollars worth of direct investment in the U.S., of which about one-fourth was used in some form of manufacturing activity. Total foreign direct investment in the U.S. in 1974 was 26.5 billion dollars.

The Original version of this chapter was published in Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 1989, 12(4):239’252.