跨國廠商的進入模式－－直接投資、出口與授權決策

THE OPTIMAL ENTRY MODE OF THE MULTINATIONAL FIRM DIRECT INVESTMENT EXPORT AND LICENSING

本文探討當技術較佳的跨國廠商能以出口、直接投資或授權這三種方式作為進入地主國市場模式時的進入策略選擇問題。本文假設跨國廠商的授權為單位授權金授權。本文主要的結論如下。在具有質易障礙的開放經濟中，單位授權金授權也是跨國廠商進入地主國市場可能的 策略。關稅的高低與兩廠商成本差距的大小，也會對跨國廠商進入策略的選擇有所影響。關稅甚低時，跨國廠商僅會出口。關稅較高時，若兩廠商成本差距較小，跨國廠商會採授權；兩廠商成本差距較大，跨國廠商則會採直接投資。隨著兩廠商成本差距逐漸縮小，在較高的關稅下，跨國廠商將由直接投資改為授權；中度的關稅下，跨國廠商的策略由直接投資改變為出口再改變為授權；在較低的關稅下，跨國廠商則由出口改為授權策略。跨國廠商不同的進入模式，也會影響地主國對跨國廠商進入模式的偏好，唯有當關稅很低或很高時，跨國廠商的進入模式才會與地主國偏好的進入模式一致。

When a technology-superior multinational firm intends to enter a new market, three possible entry types, export, direct investment, and licensing, are usually under consideration. In this paper, we analyze the optimal decision on the entry mode by the multinational firm. We focus on the royalty licensing style. The main findings are as follows. Royalty licensing become a possible strategy of the multinational firm when trade barriers exist. Export is the only possible strategy if the tariff is low enough. The cost gap between the multinational firm and the host country’s firm plays an important role when the tariff is relatively high. The multinational firm will adopt the licensing mode if the cost differentiation is relatively small, but will invest directly if the cost gap is large. When the cost gap shrinks, the direct investment strategy may switch to the licensing one with a larger tariff, and switch to export if the tariff is low. The optimal decision of the multinational firm matches the host country’s preference only when the tariff is quite high or quite low.