Outward foreign direct investment and domestic innovation performance: Evidence from China

Recent years have witnessed substantial outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from many emerging economies. Should the governments of these economies encourage OFDI in order to promote domestic innovation? Much OFDI by emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) has been undertaken to acquire strategic assets overseas, but do these acquisitions bring innovation benefits at home? The empirical analysis presented in this paper considers the effects of OFDI on regional innovation performance, using a panel of Chinese provinces, and finds that OFDI has a very significant impact on domestic innovation. Furthermore, we also identify three contingent factors – absorptive capacity, foreign presence, and the competition intensity of the local market – that moderate the impact of OFDI on innovation performance.     

Does state ownership facilitate outward FDI of Chinese SOEs? Institutional development,market competition,and the logic of interdependence between governments and SOEs

Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of manufacturing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) from emerging economies (EE) has emerged as a significant phenomenon in global markets. Although previous research has emphasized the bright-side of state ownership in facilitating SOEs’ OFDI, the stream of research largely overlooks its dark-side effects. Drawing on resource dependence theory (RDT), we argue that state ownership creates dependence of SOEs on their home governments, which may undermine manufacturing SOEs’ willingness to conduct OFDI, autonomy and market orientation, and legitimacy in overseas markets. Thus, substantial state ownership may counteract with manufacturing SOEs’ OFDI from EE. Our empirical results, based on a sample of 507 Chinese publicly-listed manufacturing SOEs during 2007–2013, show that a high percentage of state-owned shares exerts negative effects on SOEs’ OFDI. Relative to local SOEs, central SOEs are less likely to engage in OFDI. Further, the negative effect of the percentage of state-owned shares on SOEs’ OFDI will be alleviated by institutional development and competition intensity. The study contributes to literature by making a real theoretical case for the dark-side effects of state ownership on manufacturing SOEs’ OFDI from EE.     

Institutional logics and social enterprises: Entry mode choices of foreign hospitals in China

When social enterprises, being defined by their social mission and profitability, internationalize, they need to respond to institutional logics in the host country. By juxtaposing institutional logic and entry mode choice literature, this paper shows how social enterprises accommodate different institutional logics when they enter foreign markets. We collected data on Chinese healthcare reform, governmental policies and their changes, and conducted 36 in-depth interviews and three expert group meetings. By analyzing five non-Chinese hospitals entering China, we show how social enterprises, as hybrid organizations, respond to governmental, commercial, and social institutional logics, when entering a foreign market.     

Chinese Private Firms’ Outward Foreign Direct Investment: Does Firm Ownership and Size Matter?

This article investigates and explains the behaviors, motives, and characteristics of Chinese privately owned enterprises’ (POEs’) outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), and compares this with the behaviors, motives, and characteristics of Chinese state‐owned enterprises (SOEs), using the institutional perspective and resources‐based view. Through in‐depth interviews with senior managers and an extensive secondary data analysis of Chinese POEs’ OFDI, we found that Chinese POEs are increasingly active in committing both market‐ and strategic asset–seeking OFDI due to the unfavorable institutional environment they face in China and the different types of resources possessed. POEs cluster with their business partners or domestic peers for international market expansion and adopt several approaches to acquire strategic assets. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Heterogeneity in OFDI by EMNEs: Drivers and trends of Chinese and Indian firms

Previous research has identified a distinction between the internationalization of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) and their advanced-economy counterparts. However, the question as to whether EMNEs conduct outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in a uniform manner remains under-studied. Prior studies have grouped together all emerging markets but have ignored the essential heterogeneity of EMNEs that leads to their diverse OFDI patterns and behaviours. In this study, we illustrate the drivers and related phenomena of heterogeneity by exploring differences and similarities between Chinese and Indian MNEs’ OFDI activities, namely, investment destinations (i.e., advanced vs. emerging economies), the level of political relationships with host countries, industry sectors supported by institutional patronage, and the primary motivations of investment projects. We suggest that the heterogeneity in OFDI is the result of the institutional environment and the strategic priorities of the industry sector.     

FDI expansion speed of state-owned enterprises and the moderating role of market capitalism: Evidence from China

Drawing on an institutional logics perspective and isomorphism viewpoint, we posit that the negative impact of state ownership on the speed of foreign direct investment (FDI) expansion is attributed to the state socialism logic, which is inconsistent with market-oriented mechanisms that underpin rapid international expansion. We further argue that firms associated with the market capitalism logic shape an institutional context in which state-owned enterprises (SOEs) may adjust their behaviors by adopting market-oriented practices to expand quickly in the global market. Using outward FDI project information from Chinese listed firms over a fourteen-year period, we find evidence that confirms our theoretical predictions. Our analysis shows that, despite the negative relationship between state ownership and the speed of an SOE’s FDI expansion, both the non-state economy in the firm’s subnational region and privately owned enterprises in its industry sector positively moderate this relationship. This study enriches our understanding of institutional complexity in emerging markets and internationalization of emerging-market firms.     

Does outward FDI generate higher productivity for emerging economy MNEs? – Micro-level evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms

This paper investigates whether emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMEs) that undertake outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) become more productive, controlling for the self-selection into the global investment market. Particularly, we focus on the moderating effects of firm heterogeneity on the OFDI-productivity nexus. A theoretical framework incorporating the resource-based views and institutional theory is established and the propensity-score matching and difference-in-difference (DID) approaches are combined to test the framework, utilizing unique data on Chinese manufacturing firms over the sample period 2002–2008. We find that EMEs turn to be generally more productive after they conduct OFDI, but this productivity effect varies depending on the parent firm and investment strategy heterogeneity. Our results suggest that EMEs without state ownership but with stronger absorptive capability gain higher and more sustainable productivity effects and such gains are higher for EMEs investing in OECD than in non-OECD countries. Policy and managerial implications are discussed.     

An institutional work view toward the internationalization of emerging market firms

Through the lens of institutional work – the institutionally embedded practice that aims to create, maintain, or disrupt the rules and shared meanings in social life, we discuss how an emerging economy’s governments establish policies and regulations to develop outward foreign direct investment, and how domestic firms seek to shape these institutional arrangements to suit their interests and needs as they expand overseas. This study underscores the importance of the home country to multinational enterprises. We argue, the policymaking that underpins the internationalization of firms is not only a top-down (state inspired) but also a bottom-up process.     

Portfolio characteristics of outward foreign direct investment and dynamic performance of emerging economy firms: An option portfolio perspective

In recent decades, emerging economy (EE) firms have taken an aggressive approach to international expansion. Drawing upon option portfolio theory, this study develops the characteristics of the OFDI portfolio based on two attributes of a portfolio and two dimensions of host environments. We examine how the characteristics of the OFDI portfolio dynamically influence the OFDI?performance linkage. Using a sample of 545 Chinese listed multinational firms during the period 2009–2018, we find EE firms’ OFDI contributes more to short-term performance when the OFDI portfolio features a higher overall quality of host institutions or a higher diversity of strategic factor market developments in the host countries. However, over a relatively long period, EE firms’ OFDI contributes more to long-term performance when the portfolio features a higher overall diversity of strategic factor markets and institutional environments. These findings offer further knowledge on the OFDI?performance link in emerging economies.     

The Influence from the Past: Organizational Imprinting and Firms’ Compliance with Social Insurance Policies in China

Using a nationwide survey of randomly selected manufacturing firms in representative Chinese cities, we examine how firms’ compliance with social insurance policies is shaped by their historical imprinting, by their founding ownership structures, as well as by massive institutional changes. Our empirical results suggest that firms founded in the state socialist era and firms founded as Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were infused with socialist institutional logics of labor relations, and they tended to comply with social insurance policies even in the present market socialist era. Chinese SOEs restructured into private and joint-ventured firms attenuated the lingering effect of organizational imprinting and provide social insurances for fewer workers. This research is among the first to probe the historical influence on labor protection in contemporary society. Through studying the stability and changes of socialist institutional logic of labor relations, our research leads to a better understanding of the situation of labor relations in contemporary China.     

Why do Chinese firms tend to acquire strategic assets in international expansion?

More Chinese companies are using cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) to access and source strategic assets so as to address their competitive disadvantage. However, there is lack of research on the rationale for such strategic-asset-seeking M&A. This paper intends to address this critical issue from an institutional perspective. Building on institutional theory, we propose a model of resource-driven motivation behind Chinese M&A. To shed light on the explanatory power of this institutional framework, we draw on a multiple-case study of three leading Chinese firms—TCL, BOE and Lenovo. By arguing that cross-border M&A from Chinese firms represents a means to acquire strategic assets is the logic of Chinese unique institutional environment, this study is of importance not only to stimulate possible theoretical extensions but also to draw implications to other emerging market firms.     

Institutional compatibility and the internationalization of Chinese SOEs: The moderating role of home subnational institutions

This study investigates the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) through the lens of the mechanism of institutional compatibility. Drawing on institutional theory, we argue that institutional compatibility (thus legitimacy) at home and institutional incompatibility (thus lack of legitimacy) abroad reduce SOEs’ OFDI activities. However, we also argue that home-country subnational factors (coercive, normative, and mimetic forces) provide a potentially offsetting effect. Using a sample of publicly listed Chinese firms, we find that coercive and mimetic forces generated from home subnational institutions reduce the negative effect of state ownership on OFDI activity.     

Facing global economic crisis: Foreign sales,ownership groups,and corporate value

This study extends the research on internationalization to a new organizational context – emerging market firms (EMF), and a new time context – global economic crisis. We propose a U-shaped relationship between foreign sales intensity and firm value for EMFs during global economic crisis. Further, we distinguish between EMFs’ relational owners (i.e., business groups) and transactional owners (i.e., institutional investors) to investigate their different moderating effects. We find empirical support for our hypotheses using a sample of Chinese firms during the global economic crisis in 2008. Moreover, we provide research and practice implications.     

融资约束、金融财税政策和中国企业对外直接投资

中国已是世界第三大对外投资国,对外直接投资发展迅速的同时结构不平衡,行业较为集中。文章从微观企业视角研究融资约束和金融财税政策如何影响对外直接投资,在梳理政策脉络、阐明理论机制的基础上,匹配中国工业企业数据库和商务部境外投资企业名录,构建logit模型进行实证研究。研究发现:(1)融资约束对中国企业对外直接投资具有显著影响,融资能力越强的企业越倾向进行对外直接投资。(2)政府出台的金融财税政策可以提高企业对外直接投资的概率,同时弱化融资能力对企业对外直接投资的积极影响,但该调节作用不适用于国有企业和外资企业,在行业层面仅适用于采矿业、金属冶炼业和纺织业。     

Neither developed nor emerging: Dual paths for outward FDI and home country innovation in emerged market MNCs

Emerged market multinational corporations (EDMNCs) ? those based in emerged markets that have transitioned out of emerging economic status ? have received little research interest from the international business scholarship, despite their growing presence in the global market. EDMNCs face significant competitive pressure to leverage cross-border knowledge to innovate and leapfrog their middle-zone status between emerging and developed market multinational corporations. Analyzing 174 publicly listed South Korean MNCs and their outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), we find that an EDMNC’s OFDI into developed and emerging markets contributes unequally to its home-country innovation. We also elaborate on the moderating effect of industry peers’ OFDI into developed countries through crowding out and spillover effects. These findings have implications for the OFDI and innovation literature in general, and particularly for international business scholarship focusing on an under-investigated category of MNCs that are increasingly becoming successful in international competition.     

Dos and don'ts for Chinese companies investing in the United States: Lessons from Huawei and Haier

The implementation of the Chinese government's “Go Global” policy in 2000 has led to an unprecedented surge in Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). While Asia remains a favorite destination, the 2008–09 global financial crisis has presented opportunities for Chinese companies interested in cross‐border mergers and acquisitions in the United States. Chinese companies are keen on the United States because of access to the world's largest market and technology. However, Chinese companies have had to deal with difficulties ranging from regulatory hurdles and cultural differences. Given that the majority of OFDI is still carried out by state‐owned enterprises (SOEs), the primary obstacle for Chinese investors at the federal level is the Committee of Foreign Investment to the United States. This has proven to be an insurmountable obstacle so far for Chinese telecom company Huawei. However, the US investment environment is not all gloom and doom for Chinese companies. There are success stories too like Haier, which has managed to overcome cultural differences. This article aims to do a comparative study of Huawei and Haier and highlight the lessons the companies offer for Chinese companies interested in investing in the United States. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Performance feedback on sales growth goal and OFDI location choices for firms in emerging economies

This study explores the influence of performance feedback relative to sales growth on emerging economy firms’ (EEFs) outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in developed and developing economies. It takes a global value chain perspective to examine whether performance feedback motivates EEFs’ location choice for OFDI. Using listed Chinese firms’ data, we find negative performance feedback relative to sales growth motivates EEFs to increase OFDI in developing economies but reduce it in developed economies. However, positive feedback relative to sales growth reduces it in both developed and developing economies. We contribute to OFDI location choice literature by including a behavioral perspective.     

Expanding to outward foreign direct investment or not? A multi-dimensional analysis of entry mode transformation of Chinese private exporting firms

This research examines the factors determining whether or not exporting firms expand to outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) as part of their internationalisation strategy, using a recent survey of Chinese private-owned enterprises. We carry out a multi-dimensional analysis to investigate the impact of firm productivity, internal resources and the external environment on OFDI decisions, including both the decision to undertake OFDI and the volume of OFDI flows. It is found that productivity, technology-based capability, export experience, industry entry barriers, subnational institutions and intermediary institutional support affect firms’ OFDI decisions. The findings have important policy and managerial implications.     

Extending Dunning's Investment Development Path: The role of home country institutional determinants in explaining outward foreign direct investment

Recent years have seen an increase in outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from emerging markets and post-communist economies alike. Given the specific institutional fabric of these countries, the question is whether mainstream theory can explain the drivers of foreign direct investment outflows or whether new theories are needed to explain this phenomenon. This paper aims to investigate the home country determinants of OFDI from post-communist economies. We augment the Investment Development Path (IDP) with explanations derived from institutional theory and explain the effects of home country institutional factors on the level of OFDI. We test our hypotheses using random effects estimations on a comprehensive panel dataset comprising of OFDI from 20 Central- and Eastern European countries. Our results support the IDP's main propositions but also highlight the importance of accounting for home country institutional factors when investigating the determinants of OFDI. In particular, we find that the inclusion of institutional variables increases the explanatory power of our models and that competition policy and overall institutional reforms play a crucial role in explaining OFDI from CEE countries with important implications for FDI theory.     

Dismantling institutional complexity behind international competitiveness of emerging market firms

The paper examines the perceived role of emerging market institutions in the creation of firm‐specific advantages of local small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) supporting international expansion and competitiveness. Our objective is to deepen conceptual understanding of the complex link between emerging market institutional factors and an ability of emerging market SMEs to compete internationally. Our empirical evidence from Russian software SMEs operating in global niche markets reveals that managers perceive institutional influence on their firms' ability to compete internationally in a number of direct and indirect means. We find that, in addition to the well acknowledged negative impact of institutions, there are supportive and triggering forces that incentivize SMEs' international expansion and development of competitive advantages. We contribute to the literature by elaborating about the complexity of institutional influence on international competitiveness of emerging market SMEs. This research offers insights for managers about the prospects of international expansion of SMEs from emerging markets.