牧群行为和外国直接投资CaseofJa页aneseMultinationalCor页orations【34页】.pdfVIP

Herd Behavior and Foreign Direct Investment: The Case of Japanese Multinational Corporations CHRISTINE M. CHAN The University of Hong Kong School of Business Pokfulam, Hong Kong Tel.: (852) 2241-5226 Fax: (852) 2858-5614 e-mail: mkchan@business.hku.hk SHIGE MAKINO The Chinese University of Hong Kong Department of Management Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong Tel.: (852) 2609-7636 Fax: (852) 2603-5104 e-mail: makino@.hk TAKEHIKO ISOBE University of Marketing and Distribution Sciences Department of Commerce 3-1 Gakuen Nishimachi, Nishi-ku, Kobe, Japan Tel.: (81) 78-794-3516 Fax: (81) 78-794-6149 e-mail: Tisobe@xc4.so-net.ne.jp 1 ABSTRACT This paper examines herd behavior in Japanese multinational corporations’ (MNCs) foreign market entry decisions. We argue that MNCs follow other MNCs to establish foreign subsidiaries in the host country and local industry markets where the form of market entry is perceived to be legitimate, therefore repeating their previous entry decisions. We also argue that MNCs’ own and other MNCs’ exits from the host country and local industry markets trigger MNCs to expand abroad because of a release of resources in the markets. An analysis of the panel data, consisting of 76,248 spells, that listed 4,349 subsidiaries established by 8 large Japanese electronics MNCs over the period 1988-1998 in 18 industries (2-digit SIC) and 49 countries, showed that prior market entry and exit decisions of other MNCs had curvilinear relationships with the founding of MNCs’ foreign subsidiaries, while MNCs’ own prior entr