ABSTRACT
For firms engaged in international production, the timing of foreign investment, the selection of countries, and the maintenance and expansion of their local operations are all important strategic matters. This chapter examines the impact of industrial policies of the investment recipient countries on the location strategies of multinational firms through a comparative case study of competitive strategies of Japanese and US multinational enterprises in the hard disk drive (HDD) industry in East Asia. The analysis is built around two key issues: what are the unique aspects of the investment-attracting policies implemented by investment-receiving (host) countries? How do multinational enterprises (MNEs) respond to these policies in the process of internationalization of their operations?
