Innovation and export performance of emerging market enterprises: The roles of state and foreign ownership in China

This article examines the role of ownership for the relationship between innovation and exports. Analyzing a large firm-level data set on Chinese manufacturing firms during 2000–2007, we find that state ownership has a positive moderating effect on the innovation–export relationship. We ascribe this effect to state-owned firms’ privileged access to complementary resources and networks that strengthen their ability to use innovation to generate exports. In contrast to many earlier studies, we also find that foreign ownership has a negative moderating effect. One likely reason is that indicators of local innovation do not reflect the flows of knowledge between foreign-owned firms and their parent companies. This finding highlights the fact that innovation and production may be geographically separated within multinational enterprises. A policy implication of the analysis is that public support to innovation is likely to have stronger effects on exports when it targets firms that carry out most of their activities in domestic market.     

Board composition,family ownership,institutional distance and the foreign equity ownership strategies of Turkish MNEs

In much of the developing world, families represent the dominant form of firm ownership. This study investigates how this influences equity ownership strategies when firms venture abroad. Drawing on agency theory and institutional theory, we investigate the direct effect of board composition and family ownership on the equity-based ownership strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in their affiliates, and how institutional distance may moderate this. Examining foreign affiliates of listed Turkish MNEs, we find that a high ratio of independent directors is negatively linked to levels of equity ownership of MNE affiliates. We also find that a high ratio of inside directors on the board is positively associated with the equity stake of MNEs in their affiliates. The significant interaction effect between board composition, family ownership and institutional distance helps explain the unexpectedly weak effects of institutional distance.     

Is there really a foreign ownership wage premium? Evidence from matched employer-employee data

Numerous studies on firm-level data have reported higher average wages in foreign-owned firms than in domestically owned firms. This, however, does not necessarily imply that the individual worker's wage increase with foreign ownership. Using detailed matched employer-employee data on the entire Swedish private sector, we examine the effect of foreign ownership on individual wages, controlling for individual and firm heterogeneity as well as for possible selection bias in foreign acquisitions. We distinguish between foreign greenfields and takeovers and compare foreign-owned firms with both domestic multinationals and local firms. Our results show a considerably smaller wage premium in foreign-owned firms than what has been found in studies conducted at a more aggregate level. Moreover, foreign takeovers of Swedish firms tend to have no or even a negative effect on wages.     

Economic nationalism and foreign acquisition completion: The case of China

Extending institutional theory, we incorporate a neglected but important component of formal institution, economic nationalism, into a model that specifies its effects on cross-border acquisition success. We suggest that economic nationalism has a dynamic nature and sees the interaction between protectionism and liberalism. As such, it exerts both positive and negative effects on foreign investments, contingent on how these investments are perceived as aligned with the national interests as reflected by national security considerations, foreign relations, and growth strategy. Using a data set containing 7275 announced cross-border acquisition deals in China during 1985–2010, the study finds that (1) when an acquisition activity targets essential industries or state-owned enterprises, it is less likely to be completed because of provoked national economic security concerns; and (2) when an acquirer brings technology and/or capital, or/and helps to restructure poorly-performing firms, or/and the acquirer comes from a country with good foreign relations with China, the acquisition is considered as safe and helpful for the country's development, and it is more likely to be completed.     

Making the foreign familiar: The influence of top management team and board of directors characteristics on the adoption of foreign practices

This paper examines the firm-level antecedents of Six Sigma adoption in Korea. Our results indicate that firms with top executives and board members having work experience in the foreign country where the focal management practice originated and was popularized are more likely to adopt this practice. Furthermore, firms’ exposure to foreign investors exerts a direct effect and also moderates the impact of foreign work experience on adoption. Prior work experience in the country of practice origin reduces the uncertainty inherent in cross-border adoption by providing executives and board members with greater insight into the presumed benefits of the focal practice.     

Nearshoring,reshoring, and insourcing: Moving beyond the total cost of ownership conversation

As firms from across all manufacturing sectors are rethinking their outsourcing and offshoring strategies, there is the potential for a manufacturing renaissance in the U.S. The findings from this case study suggest that the current manufacturing relocation shift is not perceived by manufacturers as a long-term business strategy (as outsourcing has been). As such, the results suggest that manufacturing relocation decisions based exclusively on models such as total cost of ownership (TCO) will not deliver anticipated near-term costs savings. In addition to TCO, firms must have access to information concerning the complexity of the outsourced manufacturer’s manufacturing and supply chain processes in order to fully evaluate the ‘as-is’ outsourced function against ‘to-be’ manufacturing relocation opportunities.     

Reassessing the foreign ownership wage premium in Germany

This paper evaluates the effect of foreign takeover on wages of workers in German establishments, using rich linked employer–employee data from 2003 to 2014. To identify a causal effect of foreign takeover, we combine propensity-score matching with a difference-in-difference estimator. We find that a takeover by a foreign investor leads to a wage premium of 4.0 log points in the year after ownership change, which further increases to 6.3 log points 3 years after acquisition. The wage premium is largest for high-skilled workers, which is consistent with three theoretical arguments, namely rent appropriation by managers, technology protection and training on new technology. We also show that the wage premium does not pick up an exporter effect due to a platform investment of the foreign owner, that it takes about 4 years before it fully develops, that it does not vanish after foreign divestment and that the wage increase is specific to foreign acquisition instead of ownership change per se.     

外国直接投资、外国证券投资与经济增长:以美国为例

本文以美国1972-2002年的统计数据为例,在建立VAR模型的基础上通过脉冲响应曲线和方差分解表对流入美国的外国直接投资(FDI)、外国证券投资(FPI)和经济增长之间的关系进行了实证研究,结果表明流入美国的FDI和FPI均有助于美国经济的增长。但相对而言,美国经济增长更加依赖于外国证券投资,研究还发现流入美国的FDI与FPI之间关系紧密,两者之间存在积极的良性互动关系,且FPI对FDI的影响明显大于FDI对FPI的影响。     

The impact of kidnapping on foreign ownership of firms in Nigeria

Nigeria is one of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that has faced high incidents of kidnapping. As a result of that, some studies have investigated its determinants and economic consequences in Nigeria. However, no study is yet to investigate its impact on the foreign ownership of firms. This is a research void that this article has attempted to fill. Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, we found empirical evidence of the negative impact of kidnapping on the foreign ownership of firms. An increase in the kidnapping rate by one (1 per 100,000 of population) will reduce the foreign ownership of firms by 4.855–10.098% depending on the econometric model. There is also empirical evidence that the impact of kidnapping on foreign ownership will vary by geographical regions in Nigeria and by firm size. Policy implications were deduced from our findings.     

China's outward foreign direct investment: Location choice and firm ownership

This article evaluates the international location decisions made by public listed Chinese firms during the period 2006-2008, using a Poisson count data regression model. Further, we categorize the firms into state-controlled and privately owned according to majority ownership. We find that the determinants of internationalization differ based on ownership. State-controlled firms are attracted to countries with large sources of natural resources and risky political environments. Private firms are more market seekers. Although all firms have strategic intent, the attraction is commercially viable technology rather than core research content. Our findings also show that existing theories can sufficiently explain the actions of private Chinese firms, but adjustments are needed to understand the behavior of state-controlled multinationals.     

Investigating the causality links between environmental quality,foreign direct investment and economic growth in MENA countries

This paper investigates the causal relationship between environmental quality, Foreign Direct Investment and economic growth using simultaneous-equation panel data VAR model a panel of 17 MENA countries over the period 1990–2012. Our empirical results pointed out that there is a unidirectional causality running from both FDI stocks and CO₂ emissions to economic growth. They also indicate the existence of unidirectional causality running from economic growth to CO₂ emissions. However, the results support the occurrence of unidirectional causality from FDI stocks to CO₂ emissions. Our empirical result confirms the hypothesis of neutrality for the Environment-GDP link. There is bidirectional causality from ${\text{CO}}_2$emissions and economic growth, and a bidirectional causal relationship between FDI stocks and CO₂ emissions. For the global panel, we show that the existence of a unidirectional causality running from FDI stocks to economic growth; a bidirectional causality between economic growth and CO₂ emissions; as well as a bidirectional causality between FDI stocks and ${\text{CO}}_2$emissions.     

Corporate ownership and the theory of the multinational enterprise

This paper makes a contribution to the theory of the multinational enterprise (MNE) and, in particular, to why firms undertake foreign direct investment (FDI) rather than alternative strategies. We argue that FDI and its strategic alternatives involve different patterns of costs and returns over time, and hence different levels of risk and uncertainty. Traditional theories of the MNE conceptualize the firm as a risk-neutral decision-making entity with short-term efficiency objectives, and hence do not take these issues into account. This may be reasonable for firms with passive professional managers and widely-dispersed shareholders, operating in countries with the Anglo-American system of corporate governance. But many firms operate under quite different systems of corporate governance where concentrated shareholdings are commonplace and markets for corporate control are weak or non-existent. In these cases, shareholders exert considerable influence on all aspects of firm strategy including FDI. Furthermore, different groups of shareholders (State, family, institutions) are likely to have different objectives, different attitudes towards risk, and different decision-making time horizons. We thus suggest that the traditional theories of the MNE need to be extended to embrace consideration of corporate ownership (and other governance dimensions).     

The influence of CEO overconfidence on ownership choice in foreign market entry decisions

Prior research on foreign-market entry determinants offers various firm-, industry-, and market-level explanations. Yet, few studies consider the subjective psychological attributes of the executives making actual decisions. Based on behavioral decision theory and the psychology literature, this study provides the first empirical evidence of the influence of managerial overconfidence on ownership decisions into foreign markets. The results show that CEOs’ tendency toward overconfidence increases the propensity for full over shared ownership, where their positive relationship is more pronounced when firms are exposed to greater information asymmetry or environmental uncertainty, in terms of greater home-host cultural and institutional distances, higher host-country risks, and inexperience in the local market. A powerful board weakens this positive relationship, but does not diminish the effect completely. The results hold with overconfidence measures based on both CEOs’ actual actions and public opinions. Our findings complement extant entry-mode decision literature by highlighting the imperative to incorporate firm leaders’ psychological biases.     

Tariffs,capital mobility,and foreign ownership

This paper is concerned with the welfare effects of a small capital movement from one country to another followed by the repatriation of that capital's marginal product. Although this issue has been addressed previously, especially from the point of view of the host country, there seems to exist no formal analysis which treats simultaneously the interdependent welfare effects on the investing and host countries and thus on world real income. The purpose of this paper is to develop such an analysis in order to determine the conditions under which a capital flow will help or harm a country.     

The relative importance of old and new decision specific experience in foreign ownership strategies: an exploratory study

In this paper, we examine the relative importance of old and recent decision specific experience for MNC's foreign ownership structure decision. Using established procedures to measure decision specific experience construct, we find, from data for Japanese MNCs for the period 1969–1991, empirical evidence that firms tend to rely on both old and recent decision specific experiences for their current ownership structure decision, but that they rely more on recent decision specific experience than on old decision specific experience, contrary to the conventional organizational learning view on the temporal importance of decision specific experience. Sub-sample analysis involving developed and developing countries indicates that both old and new decision specific experience are important for both groups of countries, but old (new) decision specific experience is marginally more important for investments made in developing (developed) countries.     

Subsidiary goals,learning orientations,and ownership strategies of multinational enterprises: evidence from foreign direct investments in Korea

This paper investigates the links among subsidiary goals, learning orientations, and ownership strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The authors hypothesize that an MNE's ownership strategy is determined by subsidiary goals and learning orientations. Furthermore, interactions between learning orientations and subsidiary goals are predicted to influence the ownership strategy. Based on 723 foreign subsidiaries of MNEs operating in Korea, our findings suggest that when MNE foreign subsidiaries influence ownership choice, market-seeking goals and resource-seeking goals have a stronger fit with the exploitation orientation than with the exploration orientation. In contrast, the category of knowledge-seeking goals has a stronger fit with exploration than with exploitation.     

财政分权、经济增长与外贸依存度——基于1978-2007年我国改革开放30年数据的实证分析

根据我国1978-2007年的数据,运用协整、Granger因果检验、脉冲响应函数研究了我国财政分权、经济增长对外贸依存度的动态影响。研究发现:在长期内,财政分权会提高我国的外贸依存度,而短期内财政分权对外贸依存度的作用不显著;以人均GDP衡量的经济增长,在短期内可提高外贸依存度水平,而在长期中却会降低外贸依存度。分析表明,财政分权引致的地方政府为经济增长而产生的鼓励FDI和出口的激励,经济增长及其促成的FDI及贸易升级、产业结构调整、内需导向型经济增长模式,是财政分权、经济增长和外贸依存度之间动态关系产生的内在逻辑。     

Patterns of foreign direct investment in poor countries

This paper introduces endogenous adoption costs for productive assets in a Ramsey-type growth model with international capital flows. There are two classes of productive assets: owner-specific and location-specific. Adoption costs are an increasing function of the level of technology embodied in the investor's owner-specific assets and a declining function of the host country's location-specific assets. In this setting, the observed pattern of international capital flows is consistent with diminishing returns to capital. Further, our model predicts that the sectoral allocation of foreign direct investment is similar in rich and poor countries.     

承接跨国服务外包与我国经济增长的相互作用研究——与制造外包的比较分析

跨国服务外包成为我国经济新的增长点。本文对我国服务外包与工业、服务业增长的关系进行协整检验和格兰杰因果检验,并将其对比于制造外包与GDP的关系,结果表明:服务外包对经济增长的促进作用大于制造外包,并且服务外包对工业的促进作用大于对服务业的促进作用;而经济增长对服务外包的推动作用不明显。因此,我国大力发展服务外包具有一定的现实意义。     

开发区与中国区域经济增长

本文运用2000-2006年52个国家级经济技术开发区的面板数据,考察了开发区对区域经济增长的贡献。实证结果显示,开发区对区域经济增长具有显著作用,这不仅表现在开发区较强的技术外溢效应,还表现在开发区比非开发区具有较高的生产率。统计和实证结果还显示,东部开发区的贡献和作用最大,其次是中部开发区,最后是西部开发区。此外,地理位置对城市产出也具有重要影响。因此,东部开发区应充分利用好区位优势,加大招商引资力度;中西部开发区则应享受更多优惠政策。