Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Offshore Subsidiary Manufacturing -- The Mid-West of Ireland Region

Recent literature (Nell and Andersson (2012); Szalucka (2015)) offer conflicting views on the impact of locational environment on the competitive advantage of an investing Multi-National Corporation (MNC), and this raises an interesting challenge to the seminal theories of MNC activities such as Dunning’s Eclectic paradigm with respect to the importance of location. A conceptual framework is developed to assess the competitive advantage gained from a particular location choice, and this proposes that the regional attributes at a particular location contribute to competence development at the subsidiary level which in turn drives a competitive advantage for the parent firm. This framework is tested in a particular region (Mid-West of Ireland) by gathering qualitative data from three US MNCs with subsidiaries in this region. Data is gathered via interviews with senior directors at subsidiary and parent level and these assess the competencies gained from locating in this region before exploring whether such competencies contribute to parent company advantage. The findings suggest that the subsidiary MNCs derive a range of competencies which are specific to the Mid-West of Ireland region and most of these do contribute to the competitive advantage of the parent firm. This finding has important implications for MNCs seeking to locate in alternative regions as location choice can drive competitive advantage at the parent level.