Emerging Capabilities in Manufacturing Companies

The international community has reported an increasing flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Countries attract FDI according to their potential based on location's competitive advantages. Within developing nations those with rich natural resources used to be highly sought after; however FDI flow rationale changed from seeking location inherent advantages to those reflecting developed capabilities and market opportunities. This can be seen in the emergence of countries such as Singapore and China. This book explores the above phenomenon and aim to answer the question of how can subsidiaries upgrade their roles to support their corporations and the local economy? After exploring cases reporting shift from Mexico to China the research concentrates on the evolution of VW Group. The research outputs are: a New Taxonomy of Company Transformations which aims to describe how subsidiaries of modern MNEs influence corporate growth; Definitions for Plant & Subsidiaries and an Internationalization & Subsidiary Typology that explain the roles that plants/subsidiaries are able to play for the network rather than the classic view of what the network pursue through them.