This paper relies on the eclectic paradigm of foreign direct investments and Porter's theory on the competitive advantages of nations to study the localisation of target firms of international M&As by European enterprises. Firms' propensities towards extra- and infra-European acquisitions are correlated with the competitive position of European national industries in the international arena. Strategic groups of national industries are created through a cluster analysis based on the Fortune lists of the 500 world largest enterprises. Logit econometric estimates and statistical tests of hypotheses suggest that the share of extra-European acquisitions is greater in a) sectors where European large firms have achieved leadership of the world oligopoly, and b) sectors where the competitive position of Europe is rather weak though stable. Instead, firms belonging to national industries which have been rapidly increasing their share of the international oligopoly during the ′80s concentrate their M&As within Europe. The same holds true for declining weak competitors.
Port Privatization in an International Oligopoly