ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the location of British foreign direct investment (FDI) and assesses the location decision behind inter-war manufacturing investment in production plants. In spite of lacunae, a consensus view has developed about the location and performance of British FDI. The hallmark of the case study is the detailed archival research and firm-specific explanations of firm growth and performance. S. Nicholas argued that there was little evidence that British overseas marketing performance was amateurish and inefficient before 1914. Some evidence of how eagerly British firms utilised the multinational enterprises (MNEs) as a marketing device was the prolific establishment of overseas sales and production branches. The absence of large quantitative samples has led to much debate about the geographical distribution of British FDI. British multinationals were widespread geographically and British FDI spanned the whole product range. GOVT, or government, measures the FDI incentives which host governments provide to MNEs.