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Location Determinants of Transport and Logistics FDIs. A Focus on China and Italy

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Transport and Logistics in a Globalizing World

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Abstract

One of the core questions regarding MNEs is where their different operations take place. Nevertheless, the locations of MNEs has so far been largely neglected, and even more so the locations of transport and logistics MNEs. The present chapter presents a review of the studies investigating the location determinants of inward transport and logistics FDIs by focusing on two countries: China and Italy. The location determinants are very similar to those of manufacturing, however, a key role is played by transport infrastructures, good transport networks, an efficient bureaucracy as regards administrative and customs procedures, and a high degree of government regulation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The eclectic OLI paradigm has been able to accommodate and compare different major economic, business, and managerial theories (Iammarino and McCann 2013).

  2. 2.

    These factors have been extensively investigated in firm location theory (see, Lloyd and Dicken 1992; Hayter 1997; Krugman 1995; Fujita et al. 1999; McCann 2002; Brouwer et al. 2004; Holl 2004a, b; Capello 2007; Arauzo-Carod 2005; Arauzo-Carod and Manjòn-Antolìn 2007; Arauzo-Carod et al. 2010).

  3. 3.

    There is a body of literature on the location factors of foreign logistics firms in China (see e.g. Bolton and Wei 2003; Wang 2006, 2008), which is not presented in this subsection because it is written in Chinese. For a review of these studies see Mahpula et al. (2013).

  4. 4.

    No recent data, disaggregated by industry, countries of origin and areas of destination are available in the literature, at least to my knowledge. This information refers to the period 1992–2001 and is taken from Hong and Chin (2007) and Hong (2007a, b, 2010).

  5. 5.

    Foreign logistics firms are defined as all types of foreign-funded firms that provide single or integrated logistics services for other companies and have their own independent accounting system (Hong 2010). They are then classified as: headquarter, independent firm, branch company or office, so that this analysis does not only consider inward FDIs.

  6. 6.

    The dependent variable was a dummy variable, which is equal to one when a city is chosen and zero otherwise (Hong and Chin 2007).

  7. 7.

    The Chinese government has adopted a series of preferential policies to attract FDIs since 1978. Prior to 1984, FDIs were limited to four Special Economic Zones , and after 1984 also to fourteen Open Coastal Cities (Hong and Chin 2007).

  8. 8.

    The dependent variable was a dummy variable equal to one when a city was chosen and zero otherwise (Hong 2007a).

  9. 9.

    The dependent variable is a dummy variable, which is equal to one when a city is chosen and zero otherwise (Hong 2010).

  10. 10.

    Data are taken from the REPRINT -ICE database. For more details see www.ice.gov.it, ICE Reports on Foreign Trade (various years), and Mariotti and Mutinelli (2009).

  11. 11.

    If compared with the year 2011, the employment increase must be related to the FDIs by Fiat-Chrysler in North America (15,000 employees), and by ENI (5,000 employees) (ICE 2013).

  12. 12.

    These data by the Reprint-ICE database, refer to the year 2008.

  13. 13.

    See Appendix for a description of the database. See also the following research reports: Boscacci et al. (2006, 2008, 2009a).

  14. 14.

    For a definition of the industrial district see Becattini (1987, 2002) and Garofoli (1983). See also Chap. 5.

  15. 15.

    The dependent variable took 1 value if the province had experienced FDI growth in 1997–2001, and 0 otherwise.

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    Ilaria Mariotti

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Mariotti, I. (2015). Location Determinants of Transport and Logistics FDIs. A Focus on China and Italy. In: Transport and Logistics in a Globalizing World. SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00011-4_2

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