ABSTRACT
In the case of developing countries, natural assets may provide a country with an absolute or comparative advantage or disadvantage and are specific to a location, and as such are relatively immobile. In the
sense that the presence of natural assets per se does not create either significant ownership advantages for domestic firms from stage 1 and 2 countries that are exploitable in overseas markets, or provide anything but the most rudimentary of locational advantages to foreign investors, the deviation from the ‘general’ IDP is not significant. However, as the economic structure passes the ‘threshold’ at stage 3 of the IDP, countries develop ownership advantages in upstream, higher value added activities, and the ownership advantages of firms become more firm-specific and created-asset-based. As a country moves along its IDP its created assets are of increasing importance, and become increasingly mobile and increasingly firm-specific.
