Multinational firms’ location preference for regional distribution centers: focus on the Northeast Asian region

This paper has three main objectives: (a) to identify the major factors that multinational companies (MNCs) consider important when they decide the locations of their regional distribution centers, and (b) to understand how European and North American MNCs assess Korean cities (Seoul/Incheon; Busan/Kwangyang) as potential location for their Northeast Asian distribution centers via-a-vis competing Northeast Asian cities (Tokyo/Yokohama, Osaka/Kobe, Shanghai, Beijing/Tianjin, Taipei), and (c) to identify the gaps for Korean government must fill in order to attract MNCs’ distribution centers to Korea in order to achieve its pronounced goal of building a successful regional logistics hub. These objectives have been accomplished in this paper by employing three complementary methods: a careful review and summary of relevant literatures, a structured questionnaire-based survey of MNCs’ distribution managers, and personal interviews with MNCs senior executives and governments officials.