Multinational investments across Europe: a multilevel analysis

Abstract

This research focuses on the investigation of the location determinants of multinational corporations’ investments in EU countries. Investment projects are addressed by making a distinction between greenfield investments and M&A projects. Besides traditional factors (such as market characteristics) the effect of innovation capabilities and the institutional environment are incorporated in the analysis. The use of a multilevel model makes it possible to empirically assess the effect of national and regional characteristics on the location decision of multinationals. The results suggest that greenfield investments and M&A are similar in their location determinants, although the former have a stronger correlation with highly educated populations. Urbanisation, associated with land cost, as well as national (rather than regional) markets are insignificant. Finally, we find no evidence for the importance of political stability within Europe.