Glocalisation, foreign direct investment and regional development perspectives: Empirical results for West German regions

The present paper examines the economic development perspectives of the manufacturing sector of 31 major West German regions in the process of globalisation. Public statistics do not provide FDI data on a regional basis. Therefore our study was based on indicators based on the data from the INDAT-file which gives information about some 6,500 West German manufacturing firms in 1986, 1990 and 1996. The paper draws a stylised picture of the regional structure of West German FDI involvement in the manufacturing sector. The present participation in glocalisation benefits and the mid term development perspectives showed that Hamburg, Darmstadt and Oberbayern belong to the winners of glocalisation. In order to evaluate the long term development perspectives of the industrial cores we checked which regions had far above average access to the future growing areas of the world through FDI outflows. It turned out, that Oberbayern, Stuttgart and Hamburg face the best long term perspectives. Between 1986 and 1996 disparities between the investigated regions with regard to their integration in the global division of labour through FDI-flows have decreased, especially between peripheral regions.