Greenfield development, broadly defined, refers to any business investment by a firm which involves setting up an operation in a new location rather than expanding or acquiring existing operations. Greenfield investments may result from a desire to move away from existing production locations or because of the specific attractions of greenfield sites. In advanced economies, much greenfield investment has been stimulated by policies designed to promote development in particular regions and has taken the form of inward investment by outside (frequently foreign) firms. Examples of such investments (including descriptions of the associated location patterns) in many countries are provided. Greenfield investments have generally had a limited long-term developmental impact on their host regions, due mainly to a low level of technology transfer and use of local inputs and the lack of synergistic interaction between branch plants themselves. A number of recent developments in the nature and organization of transnational investment have tended to reduce the role of greenfield investments in peripheral regions in corporate foreign direct investment (FDI) strategies. Nevertheless, competition for internationally mobile greenfield investment has been growing. Industrial development in central core regions has been based on the creation of internally integrated industrial districts, but the prospects for replicating these in peripheral regions are limited.