How much does home country matter to corporate profitability?

Abstract

This paper provides researchers in the fields of international business and strategic management with information on the relative importance of home-country, industry, and firm influences on corporate profitability for firms with varying degrees of multinationality. The analysis relies principally on the Compustat Global reports for 1993–2003. The findings demonstrate that home-country and industry effects are more important to domestic firms than to multinationals. However, home-country influences are important even for firms with high degrees of multinationality. The evidence suggests that multinationals profit from industry-grounded opportunities to distribute activities across the countries in which they operate, but there are tradeoffs associated with internationalization. Multinationals may suffer from less protection afforded by the home-country environment and greater industry-level competition, but gain a broader scope for deploying idiosyncratic, firm-specific advantages through mechanisms enhanced by home-country experience. We conclude that industry effects in single-country studies should be interpreted carefully as influenced by the home countries of the multinational firms that are under study.