Title: Country attractiveness for foreign direct investment in e-commerce

Authors: Reuven R. Levary, John Hongzin Zhao

Addresses: Department of Decision Sciences & MIS, John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University, 3674 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108, USA. ' Department of International Business, John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University, 3674 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108, USA

Abstract: A model for ranking countries is developed that will enhance foreign direct investment (FDI) decision-making in the e-commerce industry. Existing country attractiveness rankings offer valuable information for FDI decision-making but they are too aggregated to be useful at the industry level. Different industry characteristics necessitate different assessment for specific industries. A list of criteria relevant to FDI decision-making in e-commerce was compiled for this model. Information regarding the relative weight of the criteria as they apply to e-commerce was compiled based on a mail survey. This model provides a more refined and pertinent ranking of countries for FDI decision-making in the e-commerce industry than is found in the published general country rankings. A paired-sample test indicates significant differences between the country ranking for FDI in the e-commerce industry obtained by our model and the general published country ranking.

Keywords: foreign direct investment; e-commerce.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2004.004274

International Journal of Technology Management, 2004 Vol.27 No.4, pp.357 - 368

Published online: 10 May 2004 *

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