University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Essays on location strategies, institutional environments, and knowledge/resource management

Huang, Der-Ting

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130153

Description

Title
Essays on location strategies, institutional environments, and knowledge/resource management
Author(s)
Huang, Der-Ting
Issue Date
2025-07-09
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Clougherty, Joseph A
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Clougherty, Joseph A
Committee Member(s)
  • Mahoney, Joseph T
  • Yao, Fiona Kun
  • Kim, Min Jung
Department of Study
Business Administration
Discipline
Business Administration
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • multinational corporations (MNCs)
  • institutional environments
  • resource management
  • transaction cost economics (TCE)
Abstract
The overarching question of this dissertation is: How do multinational corporations (MNCs) choose their locations and make investment decisions, considering both their internal structures and the external environments at local, regional, and international levels? This dissertation comprises three empirical essays that explore the relationship between firms’ investment location strategies and institutional environments at different geographic levels: subnational and supranational levels. Essay 1 investigates how international economic agreements (i.e., multilateral, regional, and bilateral economic agreements) differ in enhancing cross-border transactions, finding that regional economic agreements are more effective, especially in high-risk host countries. Essay 2 theorizes that multinationality—defined as the geographic dispersion of resource assets across countries—as an internal sourcing mechanism that reduces the likelihood of MNCs entering industry clusters, particularly when in-network resources have greater cross-border transferability. Essay 3 examines how MNCs interpret the prior cluster entry behavior of foreign industry peers as information cues to guide their own foreign investment decisions in industry clusters, with peer signals being especially strong in high-tech industries where resource access uncertainty is more critical. To sum up, my entire dissertation enhances our understanding of how firms navigate and respond to diverse institutional environments to inform their location and investment strategies.
Graduation Semester
2025-08
Type of Resource
Thesis
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130153
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2025 Der-Ting Huang

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