Citation: Bui, Minh Tam, Rumi Miura, Masami Saito, Yusuke Shibata, and Keiichiro Suenaga. 2022. Fragmented Flying Geese (FFG) and Intra-Regional Agglomeration: Towards a Model Explaining Location Shifting of Japanese Multinational Corporations and the Electric Value Chains of ASEAN Economies. Economies 10: 238. https://doi.org/10.3390/ economies10100238 Academic Editor: Sajid Anwar Received: 9 July 2022 Accepted: 14 September 2022 Published: 26 September 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). economies Article Fragmented Flying Geese (FFG) and Intra-Regional Agglomeration: Towards a Model Explaining Location Shifting of Japanese Multinational Corporations and the Electric Value Chains of ASEAN Economies Minh Tam Bui 1 , Rumi Miura 2 , Masami Saito 3 , Yusuke Shibata 3 and Keiichiro Suenaga 3, * 1 Faculty of Economics, Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok 10110, Thailand 2 School of Arts and Letters, Meiji University, Tokyo 101-8301, Japan 3 School of Political Science and Economics, Meiji University, Tokyo 101-8301, Japan * Correspondence: suenaga@meiji.ac.jp Abstract: In this article, we study corporate behavior and develop a model for trends and factors in Japanese Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in the electrical and electronic industry that have played an important role in the economic development of East and Southeast Asia. We focus on Thailand, where Japanese MNCs are still increasing, and examine the practical applicability of the model. Basically, the model will be developed based on the existing flying geese model and regional agglomeration, but it will also be developed to explain new events such as progress in the division of labor by fragmentation and intra-regional agglomeration in East and Southeast Asia. Japanese MNCs in the electrical and electronic industry have shifted their production bases to developing countries one after another, as a variant of the third type of flying geese model. While the network of the international division of labor is forming with the development of fragmentation, the area around the eastern seaboard from Bangkok is playing an increasingly important role in the network of Japanese companies. In that sense, this study contributes to the body of literature on flying geese models with a modified model embodied with dynamic and systematic features of the ASEAN integrated economies. Keywords: fragmented flying geese (FFG); intra-regional agglomeration; electric industry; regional value chains (RVCs) JEL Classification: F23; F63; L63; O24; O53 1. Introduction The rapid development of economies, led by Japan and followed by countries in East and Southeast Asia, and called the ‘East Asian miracle’ (World Bank 1993), has often been termed ‘flying geese theoretical development’ (e.g., Radelet and Sachs 1997; Kojima 2003; Ozawa et al. 2001; Lin 2012; Ozawa 2016). Multinational Corporations (MNCs) including those from Japan have played an important role in the economic development of East and Southeast Asia, particularly in some manufacturing industries, such as automobile and electronic industries, with a prominent advantage belonging to Japanese ones. While the traditional flying geese models (FFG) have been extensively used in the literature to explain the relocation and transfer of certain industries from the lead country Japan to the Asian newly industrialized economies (NIES) in the 1970–1980s and ASEAN 4 (Indonesia, Malaysian, the Philippines, and Thailand) in the 1980–1990s, recent develop- ments since the early 2000s in China and the new ASEAN member states (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam) have shown different trends. From 2005 until recent years, for example, direct investment assets in terms of stock from Japanese electric machinery companies in Asia have been largest in China, followed by Thailand with incremental rates Economies 2022, 10, 238. https://doi.org/10.3390/economies10100238 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/economies