EXAMINING U. S. INVESTMENTS IN THE ASEAN REGION: IMPERATIVES FROM A NATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS STANDPOINT Available to Purchase

External globalization drivers have been proposed to influence the degree of internationalization occurring in industries (Yip, 1989). Industry globalization drivers, when used in conjunction with firm‐specific global strategy levers (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1995), provide the bases for obtaining competitive advantage. However, the relative importance of the various drivers of globalization varies across industries. Further, the presence of each driver in different countries may also vary. This paper proposes that the interplay of these two factors impacts the investment decisions occurring in different industry sectors across different countries. The case of investments of the U.S. automobile, computer, and petroleum refining industries in the ASEAN region is used to illustrate the argument. The main proposition in this paper is that U.S. firms need to undertake more investments in the ASEAN region from a global competitiveness standpoint independent of traditional market‐ or resource‐drivers.