Publication: The Scope, Scale and Locational Preferences of Spanish Multinationals
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2018-04-06
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Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between firms’ heterogeneity and their multinational activity. We examine the scope and the scale of multinational firms following the insights of Yeaple’s (2009) model. The goal of the paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the activity of Spanish multinationals using a sample of Spanish multinational firms. Our dataset is built from two databases, SABI and ORBIS, both from the Bureau van Dijk. Our results confirm that more productive firms have a greater multinational activity in terms of both the scope (the number of foreign markets where they invest) and the scale (the volume of local sales by subsidiaries in foreign markets). The structure of Spanish multinational firms’ activity is also analysed from the perspective of host country characteristics (GDP, population, distance and language) using standard gravity equations. Country characteristics that are positively associated (GDP and common language) with the volume of multinational activity are negatively related to the productivity of firms that go abroad. This asymmetry also holds for bilateral characteristics as distance that appears negatively associated with the level of multinational activity.
En este trabajo se analiza la relación entre la heterogeneidad de las empresas españolas y su actividad multinacional contrastando las predicciones del modelo de Yeaple (2009). Se utiliza una base de datos de empresas multinacionales españolas fusionando dos bases de datos, SABI y ORBIS. Los resultados confirman que las empresas más productivas tienen una mayor actividad multinacional tanto en términos de alcance (número de mercados extranjeros donde las empresas matrices invierten) y de escala (el volumen de las ventas de las subsidiarias en los mercados extranjeros). La estructura de la actividad de las empresas multinacionales también se analiza desde la perspectiva de las características del país receptor (PIB, población, distancia, lengua común…) usando ecuaciones de gravedad. Las características del país que están positivamente relacionadas (PIB y lengua común…) con el volumen de la actividad multinacional presentan una relación negativa con la productividad de las empresas que operan en el exterior. Este efecto asimétrico también se produce para otras variables como la distancia que está negativamente asociada con la actividad multinacional y positivamente con la productividad de las empresas multinacionales.
En este trabajo se analiza la relación entre la heterogeneidad de las empresas españolas y su actividad multinacional contrastando las predicciones del modelo de Yeaple (2009). Se utiliza una base de datos de empresas multinacionales españolas fusionando dos bases de datos, SABI y ORBIS. Los resultados confirman que las empresas más productivas tienen una mayor actividad multinacional tanto en términos de alcance (número de mercados extranjeros donde las empresas matrices invierten) y de escala (el volumen de las ventas de las subsidiarias en los mercados extranjeros). La estructura de la actividad de las empresas multinacionales también se analiza desde la perspectiva de las características del país receptor (PIB, población, distancia, lengua común…) usando ecuaciones de gravedad. Las características del país que están positivamente relacionadas (PIB y lengua común…) con el volumen de la actividad multinacional presentan una relación negativa con la productividad de las empresas que operan en el exterior. Este efecto asimétrico también se produce para otras variables como la distancia que está negativamente asociada con la actividad multinacional y positivamente con la productividad de las empresas multinacionales.
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This research has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project ECO2014-52051-R and ECO2017-82445-R) and by the Autonomous Region of Madrid through project S2015HUM-3417 (INNCOMCON-CM), co-funded by the European Social Fund (European Union). The authors benefited from presentations at the 4th PhD-Student Workshop on Industrial and Public Economics (Reus, 2016), the Conference on International Economics (La Coruña, 2016) and especially from suggestions from Andrés Barge.
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