Overseas Subsidiaries and the Productivity of Two-way Trading Manufacturers in Global Value Chains

Purpose – This research examines the effect of a foreign subsidiary on the productivity growth of a Two-way trading manufacturing firm in Korea. We explore firms engaged in both trade and FDI simultaneously to verify whether participation in GVC as a broad concept is an efficient internationalization strategy to increase the productivity of a Korean manufacturing firm.Design/methodology – Based on the firm-level data by utilizing the Survey of Business Activities from Statistics Korea, we examine the impact of vertically integrated foreign subsidiaries on the productivity of a manufacturing firm that exports and imports simultaneously. Findings – The results show that if a Two-way trading firm establishes one or more overseas subsidiaries, the total factor productivity growth increases. Moreover, the FDI effect is statistically significant when the destination country has an economically close relationship with Korea. However, these effects are disparate depending on the industrial competitiveness or market situation where the subsidiary is located. Nonetheless, the synergy effect resulting from industrial combination is represented in China and the USA only. Originality/value – As the importance of GVC has become more emphasized around the world. In spite of the scarcity of related domestic studies, we explored the effect of multinational manufacturing firms participating in GVC using firm-level data