Korean Automotive Foreign Direct Investment In Europe

This book examines Foreign Direct Investment of major Korean automotive companies in Europe, with particular reference to how economic integration has affected the motivations and patterns of FDI and industrial location. The book is a valuable source of information on FDI, the automobile industry in Europe and South Korea and business decision-making process in general.

Explores Korean foreign direct investment, putting forward a theoretical framework to explain why the Korean conglomerates felt compelled to invest in western, central and eastern Europe.

This book offers a critical analysis of recent developments in the automotive industry of East-Central Europe (ECE). Economists, industry specialists and national governments have considered the rapid development of the automotive industry in ECE in the past twenty years an unqualified success. This rapid growth has been based on large inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) from Western Europe, North America, Japan and South Korea, and it significantly contributed to GDP growth, created thousands of new jobs, and completely transformed the previously existing automotive industry in the region. This volume offers an analysis that goes beyond uncritical celebratory accounts of this rapid growth. It is based on original, detailed firm-level research conducted by the author in Czechia and Slovakia between 2009 and 2015 that covered assembly firms and the networks of component suppliers. Theoretically and conceptually, the analysis will draw on the global production networks and global value chains perspectives. Drawing on the original empirical data and on additional available information, this volume concentrates on several important questions related to the development of the automotive industry in ECE in the 2000s:• The role of FDI in the rapid development of the automotive industry after 1990 and particularly in the 2000s.• The upgrading of the automotive industry in East-Central Europe through FDI• The position of ECE in the automotive industry research and development (R&D)• The effects of the 2008-2009 economic crisis in the automotive industry of ECE.• The role of state in the rapid development of the automotive industry in ECE in the 1990s and 2000s.• The effects of FDI on domestic firms in the form of linkages between foreign-owned and domestic firms and spillovers from foreign-owned to domestic firms.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Korean firms embarked on an impressive wave of direct investment abroad. This dramatic multinationalization was considered as yet another sign of Korea's remarkable economic performance, especially as a high proportion of the foreign ventures were located in advanced countries. But this unbalanced quest for globalization actually tested the 'Korean model' to its limits; after the 1997 crisis a new policy prepared the way for a surge of inward investment. Using empirical tests and case-studies, this collection shows that Korean groups have invested in developed countries to jump over trade barriers, but also to source advanced technology and marketing capabilities. Moreover, their ambitious strategies have been stimulated by oligopolistic rivalry among the chaebols. From a policy perspective, the book provides an original discussion of national ownership by questioning the substitutability between inward and outward foreign investment and its relationship with the evolution of the national innovation system. By shedding light on the pattern of Korea's internationalization, these essays make a valuable contribution to the theory of international production and provide important insights for the current policy debates on globalization and innovation-led growth.

This book addresses the fundamental question why and under which conditions Korean firms increased their investment so heavily in the EU after 1986 and why they and not the Korean government took the initiative in the decision-making process. The author contends that the main reason for the firm's departure from government policy is the belief of the Korean government that national competitiveness, which largely affects the country's standard of living, is determined by the success of local firms in global competition. The author substantiates his argument by supplying comprehensive surveys of twenty-six Korean consumer electronics firms and concomitant interviews with senior managers in nine of these. The empirical material suggests that Korean consumer electronics firms were principally motivated by their need to seek market security through a 'globalization' strategy.

In 1962, South Korea assembled just 1,100 new automobiles. By 1996, this total had soared to 2,812,714. What explains this remarkable growth? The answer is complex, and involves a combination of a supportive State, timely technology alliances, a skilled but historically low-paid workforce, aggressive pricing, savvy entrepreneurs, and fortuitous circumstances. Despite this amazing ascent, comparatively little has been written about the Korean auto industry in English. In the first of a two-volume set, this 11-chapter book seeks to help fill this void by providing in-depth examinations of all six of Korea’s automakers from their beginnings through 1996. Uniquely written from the perspective of industry analysts at the time (without knowledge of the Asian Fiscal Crisis), the book should prove informative to practitioners, scholars, and students interested in automotive history, international political economy, Asian studies, and more.

This volume chronicles the maturation of the South Korean auto industry and its native automakers, from the 1997 Asian Crisis to 2019. After examining the context for domestic vehicle production in South Korea, the author presents multiple case studies for all five Korean automakers: General Motors Korea/Daewoo Motors, Kia, Hyundai, Ssangyong and Renault Samsung. This includes coverage of Hyundai-Kia’s foreign plants in North America, Europe, India, China, and Emerging Asia. The book closes by assessing the five-to-ten-year future outlooks for Korean automakers at home and abroad. This important work will prove informative to scholars of business, management, automotive history, international development, Asian studies, and public administration.

Japanese foreign direct investment has played a leading role in Asian economies for more than two decades. This book, describing the changing industrial dynamics after the Asian currency crisis in 1997, focuses on corporate strategies of Japanese automobile and electronics companies in Asian nations, with detailed analysis of management issues and strategies from the viewpoint of both the home economy and the recipient host economies. Among the cases presented are the global restructuring of the Korean automobile industry and the transfer of automotive technology to China via Taiwan. Other studies, from the electronics industry, look at production sites in Malaysia, backward integration in Singapore, and forward integration in Hong Kong. The contributions of specialists from Asia, Europe, and the United States collected here envision an ongoing process of globalization and provide valuable perspective and background for business management and East Asian studies.