Robert Johnson, Guillermo Noguera
The global engagement of a firm could range from none at all, to exporting and importing only, to exporting, importing and engaging in foreign direct investment. Research has shown that, for firms located in the US, the most globally engaged firms dominate both trade and investment. Bernard et al. (2009) find that multinational enterprises (MNEs) accounted for roughly 90% of US exports and imports of goods in 1993 and 2000. Bruner and Grimm (2019) find that MNEs accounted for roughly 90% of US exports and imports of selected services in 2011–2017. The dominance of MNEs in both trade and investment suggests that most international trade is associated with their global value chains (GVCs) and that the traditional notion of exports and imports representing transactions between producers and final consumers is in need of an update.