Amazon’s HQ2 Site Selection Criteria: The New ‘Gold Standard’ in FDI Decision-Making | Zendy

Alfried Braumann | Zendy

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Amazon’s HQ2 Site Selection Criteria: The New ‘Gold Standard’ in FDI Decision-Making

Author(s) -

Alfried Braumann

Publication year - 2020

Publication title -

urban planning

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

ISSN - 2183-7635

DOI - 10.17645/up.v5i3.3207

Subject(s) - yardstick , foreign direct investment , investment (military) , selection (genetic algorithm) , process (computing) , site selection , public investment , economics , business , operations research , engineering , computer science , public economics , political science , law , artificial intelligence , geometry , mathematics , public fund , politics , macroeconomics , operating system

In 2017–2018, Seattle-based Tech behemoth Amazon executed a highly publicised location-finding process for a $5 billion investment project, dubbed ‘HQ2’. Owing to the combination of high investment volume and the company’s unique public exposure, the HQ2 process is on course to becoming a basic yardstick for future foreign direct investment (FDI) projects all over the world. This article compiles the company’s previously unpublished site selection criteria and develops an evidence-based system of investment decision arguments which is employed to test the currently dominant approaches in location decision theory—behavioural, neoclassical, and institutional. Our results identify gaps vis-a-vis this emerging ‘Gold Standard’ and we propose the addition of a fourth, project-oriented approach to theory to fill the detected shortcomings. Furthermore, this system equips policymakers with a tool to evaluate their investment attraction strategies based on the decision criteria extracted from the HQ2 process.

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