Berkeley Planning Journal

This article presents an emerging theoretical framework on the locational dynamics of multinational firms in the 1990s. Until recently, theories on multinational firms have developed separately in two fields, one in the business/economics literature, with a focus on the logic of competition, and another in the economic geography literature, with a focus on locational dynamics. The article reviews existing theories in these two traditions and then describ es the emerging views of the 1990s, which address competition and location sim ultaneously. The article argues that the development of an integrated framework is useful for understanding the increasing importance of location in the competition among multinational firms.