LOCATION DETERMINANTS AND MULTINATIONAL FIRMS - A SYNTHETIC APPROACH AND APPLICATION TO JAPANESE FIRMS IN EUROPE

In the synthetic approach logic, when a firm has a discordance between its own competitive advantage and the comparative advantages of its home country, by locating abroad it searchs a host country with comparative advantages adapted to maintain and reinforce its competitive advantages. This discordance/concordance logic comes from the supply side (production costs, technology), as well as from the demand side (specific demand, market's size, accessibility). Empirical analysis concerning Japanese FDI underline the importance of the globalization in the multinationalization. This does not contradict the synthetic analysis results. We have then a " global localization " aspect of Japanese firms corresponding with their competitive advantages, the strategic advantage to be insiders in the European market and comparative advantages of each European countries as alternative host country.