The role of city rankings in the context of MNC HQ location choices
No Thumbnail Available
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2021
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Management and International Business (MIB)
Language
en
Pages
97 + 2
Series
Abstract
Multinational corporations (MNCs) are significant players in globalization and have received great academic attentions in the international business (IB) studies. Among the study topics, the location choice of MNC headquarters (HQs) and its relationship with the local economic development is a critical one. The past decades have seen growing competitions between cities, which explains the emergency of various city rankings. City rankings evaluate and compare cities against different criteria, with their respective purposes. Heated media discussions are sparked each time a reputed city ranking publishes a new edition. They have been discussed by scholars as a tool of city branding. This thesis puts city rankings in the context of MNCs HQ location choices, which was unseen from previous studies. The goal is to understand whether city rankings play a role in the location choice dynamism. The literature review part sets the foundation to the context, proving the relevance of adopting the aforementioned viewpoint. Previous studies into city rankings offered guiding principles of the analysis framework of city rankings. This qualitative study conducted a combination of semi-structured interview and multi-case study. In this study, a case is defined as a proprietary city ranking and online materials related to its latest edition by early 2021. A semi-structured interview was conducted with an expert of city rankings. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the empirical materials. The findings of the thesis provide understanding of the city rankings in terms of their purposes, methodologies, and influences. Results showed that the indicators city rankings adopt to evaluate cities are the same or relevant to the location-specific factors that MNCs take into consideration while making HQ location choices. However, the questionable methodological aspect of city rankings makes it a risky decision to solely rely on city rankings for strategic location decisions. This research bridges the existing literature on MNC location choices and on city rankings. To managers and city leaders, this study reveals the hidden facets of city rankings, which further on presents more information and guidance for them to decide whether to, and how to use city rankings in their favor and to the best of their benefits.Description
Thesis advisor
Kähäri, PerttuKeywords
MNC, HQ, location, city ranking, city competition