Reputational comparative advantage and multinational enterprise

For a firm without a readily identifiable brand name, quality reputation may solely reflect the country of origin. In this article I endogenize these country-of-origin reputations and show that these self-fulfilling reputations determine not only the average quality of a country's exports but also the type of products in which a country specializes. Hence, the pattern of international trade can be determined by reputational comparative advantage. This specialization can also establish the location of the host and the parent firm in a multinational enterprise. Furthermore, this reputation effect can identify whether internalization or licensing is more likely to occur