Global facility network design in the presence of competition

We study the facility network design problem for a global firm that is a monopolist seller in its domestic market but faces local competition in its foreign market. The global firm produces in the face of demand and exchange rate uncertainty but can postpone localization and distribution of the output until after uncertainties are resolved. The competitor in the foreign market, however, enjoys the flexibility of postponing all production activities until after uncertainties are resolved. The two firms engage in an ex-post Cournot competition in the foreign market. We consider three potential network configurations for the global firm. Under a linear demand function, we provide the necessary and sufficient condition that one of the three networks is the global firm’s optimal choice, and explore how the presence of foreign competition affects the sensitivity of the global firm’s design to various cost parameters and market uncertainties.