The Interplay Between Location and Strategy in a Turbulent Age

Abstract

The spread of protectionist policies and the COVID-19 pandemic force policymakers and managers to fundamentally rethink the relationship between location and strategy. We examine this location-strategy interplay through a structure-agency perspective by investigating how the economic landscape shapes and, simultaneously, is shaped by firm strategies. Increasing spatial disparity and diversity of innovation and wealth in clusters and city-regions create both tremendous challenges and opportunities for multinational enterprises to strategically leverage knowledge over space. Locational choices and actions of multinationals, in turn, affect regional economic development paths and geographies of innovation. We argue for deep dialogue and collaboration between economic geography, international business and strategy to untie the knots in the intricate interplay between location and strategy and solve the grand challenges in our turbulent age.