U.S. MULTINATIONAL CORPORATE MANAGERS' RESPONSE TO INVESTMENT INCENTIVES AND PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS (INTERNATIONAL, DECISION-MAKING, UNITED STATES)

This is an empirical study of U.S. multinational corporate managers' response to investment incentives and performance requirements. These policy instruments are used by foreign governments in attempting to influence the behavior of corporations. The primary purpose of the study is to investigate the manner by which managers are influenced during foreign direct investment location decision making. Specifically, this research explores corporate actions and opinions of managers with respect to investment incentives and performance requirements while attempting to access the effectiveness of these government interventions.;The statistical methods used in this study included the Mann-Whitney U and Chi-square tests.;The results of the study show distinct preferences for certain policy instruments and reasons for these preferences. The study's findings suggest government policy makers consider factors specific to individual corporations, specific to each industry, and general characteristics of management work in designing direct investment related policy instruments.;Case studies were written on decisions to invest abroad made by ten corporations. In addition, interviews were conducted that included questions which explored the usefulness of selected investment incentives to the corporation and problems involved with selected performance requirements. A mail survey was also conducted and the survey instrument included questions regarding the most recent international direct investment decision made by the respondent's firm and the perception of importance given to both investment incentive and performance requirement policy instruments in decisionmaking. In the personal interviews and mail survey respondents were asked to make decisions under conditions where effects on the rate of return of a hypothetical foreign investment project were the same regardless of the policy instrument selected.