~ 1 Pergamon PII: S0969-5931 (97)00004-8 International Business Review Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 271-293, 1997 ;c 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0969-5931/97 $17.00 + 0.00 Location Decision-making Characteristics of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States Francis M. Ulgado School of Management, Ivan Allen College of Management, Policy and International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0520, USA Foreign Direct Investment in the United States Abstract -- After a rapid surge in the eighties and despite a decline in growth in the nineties, foreign direct investment in the United States remains significant. Billions have been spent by firms in selecting an investment site location, while billions more have been spent by communities in efforts to attract foreign investment. A survey of domestic and foreign manufacturing companies in the United States indicates that managerial differences across nationalities are evident in plant location decision-making which involves location information sources, preferred incentives, satisfaction levels, and location problems. Implications for manufacturing firm management, as well as economic development officials and policymakers can be derived from comparing foreign investors with their domestic counterparts. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Key Words -- Comparative Management, Location Decision-making, US Foreign Direct Investment Location, Multinational Firm Behavior Introduction Foreign Direct Investment in the United States [FDIUS] has increased dramatically, particularly from the mid to late 1980s, growing by more than 400% between 1980 and 1990 (Choate, 1993). This phenomenon has inspired considerable research and media focus on various related issues, ranging from the economic growth effects to national sovereignty implications of such foreign investment. One area of interest concerns the location of FDIUS, involving location factor issues on why and how foreign investors select their US site of operations. Managers of multinational corporations investing in the US, state and local economic developers and policymakers, and academic researchers have all been interested in the locational aspects of FDIUS. Various US geographic areas have aggressively marketed their respective sites to potential foreign investors, competing against each other by offering a significant amount of incentives ranging from employee training to tax breaks. However, after peaking in 1988 with a record high of $73 billion, the growth of FDIUS declined in the following four years, falling 47% to $14 billion in 1992 (US Department of Commerce, 1993a). Nevertheless, FDIUS showed a resurgence by 1993 (US Department of Commerce, 1993b, 1994, 1995). Foreign investment in the United States has remained significant with a total of