Foreign Investment and Asia's, Particularly China's, Rise in the Television Industry: The International Product Live Cycle Reconsidered

Examines the international investment cycle and waves in foreign direct investment in TV production. Five such waves are identified. The first two could be explained by Vernon's model of the international product cycle, but not the later ones. These are associated with the rise of Asian countries in television production (first Japan and now China). These Asian countries now have FDI in the original innovating nations. Japan, S. Korea and China have followed active industrial policies, a factor ignored in the original international product cycle theory. The TV investment cycle has more phases than allowed for by Vernon