Company Location Selection in Digital Technology Era, Does it Still Matter?

Abstract

Some locations are considered good for business and some other being accused and responsible for failure of a company. In early 90s many companies was willing to invest more to have a location that believed to contribute in generating companies’ competitive advantages. During location selection process many factors are being carefully calculated to support decision making, some of those factors are: Labor Productivity; Exchange Rates and Currency Risk; Cost; Political Risk, Value and Culture; Proximity to Markets; Proximity to Suppliers; Proximity to Competitors. There are even more factors to consider in specific region, after that more factors for specific site. How about today, a time that considered as Digital Technology Era, are those factors still relevant? Or more essential question, is company location selection still matter? This literature research has purpose in evaluating some factors that generally considered in making decision related to location selection.