Location Criteria and Perceptions of Regional Business Climate: A Study of Mexican and U.S. Small Electronics Firms
研究了墨西哥和美国小型高技术电子制造企业在选址标准和区域商业环境感知上的文化差异，比较了两国企业对定价、营销、研发等战略因素的重视程度。
LOCATION CRITERIA AND PERCEPTIONS OF REGIONAL BUSINESS CLIMATE: A STUDY OF MEXICAN AND U.S. SMALL ELECTRONICS FIRMS(*) Plant and facility location has been an important research topic in economics, regional development, and industrial management for several decades. More recently, the global proliferation of regional high-technology centers has influenced various public and private sector interest groups to intensify efforts to understand the forces driving such development. From a public perspective, many local governments view a high-technology-based economy, comprised primarily of smaller entrepreneurial efforts, R&D laboratories, and clean assembly work, as the critical link in their long-range efforts to establish a vibrant community. As a result, competition among local, state, and even national governments to lure these types of firms has taken on increased intensity. Likewise, private sector interest in high technology development is equally acute. Venture capitalists, financial institutions, industrial site developers, hotel and convention center operators, existing high-technology firms seeking larger supplier and customer bases, and other ancillary services to a technology-based community all have a vested interest in profitable high-technology development. Just as the efforts to attract high-technology firms have become more competitive over the last decade, the targets of such efforts--firms seeking new industrial space and R&D sites--have become more sophisticated in their search behavior. Some smaller firms, for example, now employ location consultants, or subscribe to one of the many environment reports which purport to analyze the commercial desirability of various regions and cites. (1) Others, however, are joining powerful consortiums, such as the Super Conducting Super-collider project and the Sematech consortium, which are organized to jointly seek-out and negotiate attractive offers from local governments. Of current interest to many is the ongoing effort by the firms in the struggling U.S. Memories, Inc. consortium to sift through 57 potential sites in over 30 different cities to build a $500 million state-of-the-art chip manufacturing complex. Clearly, the need to understand the nature of high-technology location decisions has become paramount across a wide range of stakeholders. Additionally, as high-technology development spans international borders, the issues become even more complex. In an international environment, theoretical questions of bounded rationality and cultural perceptions need to be integrated with traditional location issues to gain a fuller understanding of the dynamics which occur. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of cultural differences on the location concerns of smaller high-technology operations in both Mexico and the United States. Within this framework, a set of issues relating to these cultural differences are identified and examined. Specifically, we explore the differences and similarities in region and site-specific location criteria and preferences between Mexican and U.S. small high-technology electronic manufacturing firms. We also examine the way these firms view the importance of various strategic factors, such as pricing, marketing, and R&D, in contributing to overall competitive success. Additionally, cross-cultural business environment perceptions and their influences on manufacturing intentions are considered. LITERATURE REVIEW Early approaches to understanding industrial development and location decision making are rooted in A. Weber's neoclassical assumption that the maximization of owner wealth is critical to the site location decision (Weber 1928). Subsequent theorists, however, have found it useful to speak of two basic types of location behavior: (1) agglomerative--firms that are attracted to sites because of demand and supply considerations, or (2) footloose--firms whose financial performance is relatively independent of location considerations. …