Foreign-owned companies' entry and location strategies in a US market: a study of manufacturing firms in North Carolina

As more firms expand their business operations across national borders, a better understanding of the motivations and strategies for entering and locating in foreign markets becomes more important to their survival and growth. Much has been written about how U.S.-based firms export and invest overseas, but relatively less is known about how foreign-owned companies choose locations and entry strategies in the United States. Interviews with executives of foreign-owned manufacturing firms indicate that these companies use a contingency approach in selecting locations and entry channels in one U.S. market, the State of North Carolina, based on the characteristics and business climate of the location and the internal capacities and orientations of the firm and that they use the entry experience in organizational learning. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.