COMPONENT SOURCING STRATEGIES OF MULTINATIONALS - AN EMPIRICAL-STUDY OF EUROPEAN AND JAPANESE MULTINATIONALS

This is a study of component sourcing decisions of European and Japane se manufacturers for supplying their manufacturing operations in their home countries for export to the U.S. as well as their operations in the United States. Specifically, employing data from seventy-one multi national manufacturers of European and Japanese origin operating in th e U.S., the study investigated the determinants of international sourc ing decisions. The authors found support for the hypothesis that inter national sourcing could be explained using international plant locatio n theory. The significance of this finding is that it offers a new the oretical framework to spur much needed research on the topic of intern ational sourcing.