Foreign Direct Investment, Source Country Heterogeneity and Management Practices

This paper examines whether and, if so, why source country heterogeneity exists in foreign direct investment. Using detailed data on all Swedish firms for the period from 1996 to 2009, we find statistical evidence that affiliate performance differs systematically across source countries. We then show that differences in foreign MNEs’ global management practices (estimated from the new firm-level data from the World Management Survey) is an important determinant of productivity among foreign affiliates.​