State ownership of Chinese firms and their outward foreign direct investment: Political and economic contingencies

The extant literature offers inconsistent predictions and conflicting evidence regarding the relationship between state ownership and the internationalization of emerging market firms (EMFs). Drawing on institutional theory, we examine the moderating roles of political and economic institutions at the subnational and national levels in the link between state ownership and EMFs’ outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). Based on a sample of 1421 OFDI projects involving 286 Chinese listed firms in 115 host countries between 2003 and 2016, we find that state ownership can scale up OFDI when Chinese firms are headquartered in subnational regions with high institutional development or low economic development, or when political relationships between home and host countries are amicable or market growth in a host country is slow; otherwise, state ownership hinders OFDI. These findings offer new insights into the relationship between state ownership and the internationalization of EMFs.

     

State equity and outward FDI under the theme of belt and road initiative

State capitalism is attracting burgeoning attention but comes with inconsistent findings toward internationalization. Given its prevalent appearances, the study has investigated the effect of state equity on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which may constitute a challenge to the international business theory and new hope for companies in emerging economies. Anchoring on the agentic perspective of institutional theory and a sample of Chinese public listed firms, we have unveiled that higher state equity pushes greater proactiveness in investing in those BRI destinations. However, state equity generates stronger pushing effects when the equity source is not from the central government whereas the organizational top managers’ foreign exposures attenuate such pressures. At the institutional level, furthermore, the coastal locale attenuates the effects of such pressures whereas firms are more likely to invest in countries with bilateral investment treaties (BITs) under the BRI theme. Overall, the study should extend our understandings toward the BRI phenomenon and enrich the theoretical knowledge of state capitalism from a political perspective.

     

Behind organizational slack and firm performance in China: The moderating roles of ownership and competitive intensity

Extensive studies of the organizational slack–performance relationship offer mixed findings in developed economies while little research attends to transition economies. Replicating and extending earlier work by Tan and Peng (2003), this study examines the relationship between organizational slack and firm performance in China and focuses on the moderating effects of firm ownership and competitive intensity. Empirical findings based on longitudinal data from 60,945 firms during 1998–2002 suggest that the impact of organizational slack on performance is stronger for private enterprises than for SOEs and foreign-invested enterprises. Furthermore, industry competitive intensity positively moderates the effect of organizational slack on performance. In a three-way interaction effect, the moderating effect of competitive intensity on the organizational slack–performance relationship is weaker in SOEs than in private enterprises and foreign invested enterprises.     

Behind M&;As in China and the United States: Networks,learning, and institutions

Few scholars would dispute the argument that mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are different in China and the United States, but we know little about how they differ. This article reports one of the first studies that systematically compares and contrasts how M&As differ in these two countries. While prior research on M&As tends to emphasize economic and financial explanations while treating firms as atomistic actors severed from their institutional and network relations, we develop a new theoretical framework based on relational, behavioral, and institutional perspectives. We not only consider firms as learning actors embedded in network relations, but also compare and contrast their M&A patterns between China and the United States, two distinctive institutional contexts. We find that both a firm’s structural hole position and its learning orientation (exploration/exploitation) in alliances have direct and joint impacts on subsequent M&As. Further, such impacts differ across the two countries, due to their institutional disparities.     

中国反倾销与对华直接投资相关性实证研究

反倾销是目前研究的热点之一,本文从中国反倾销与外商对华直接投资相关性这个角度,利用企业水平的模型进行回归实证分析,并结合案例,得出中国反倾销与外商对华直接投资之间存在正的相关性。结果表明,中国的反倾销会引起外商对华直接投资的增加,特别是跨国公司对华直接投资的增加。     

Franchising vs. company ownership as a decision variable of the firm

This paper investigates the mix of franchised and company-owned outlets among franchise chains. Hypotheses are formulated about the proportion of franchised outlets and are tested using firm-level data from a national survey of franchisors. Empirical results support the hypothesis that company-owned outlets serve as a way for the franchisor to give itself an incentive to maintain system quality.     

我国企业FDI路径选择与“差异化的同时并进”模式

中国企业在跨国发展中应该如何走出去、走到哪里,是研究者和实践者共同关注的问题。本文从顺梯度和逆梯度FDI的对比分析和相关理论阐述中,剖析了中国企业在海外投资流向上的难与易问题的实质和两者之间的时空关系,进而提出综合了现行的先难后易和先易后难两种路径选择的一种新型的跨国企业FDI模式,即差异化的同时并进模式。在引入卓越中心概念来界定新FDI模式的内涵后,具体从四个方面对其独特性进行了阐释。     

Economic and strategic considerations surrounding Chinese FDI in the United States

The growth of outward investment from China has generated expressions of concern from policymakers in the United States regarding the economic and national security impacts of such investments. While inward foreign direct investment (FDI) has come to be viewed by most observers as generally imparting net economic benefits to the host economy, acquisitions of US companies by Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) have been criticized on several grounds. One is based on the mode of entry itself: some critics believe that entry by acquisition brings lower benefits than greenfield entry. A second and more prominent concern is that acquisitions of US companies by Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) may be motivated by non-commercial objectives which, in turn, make those acquisitions of questionable value to the host economy. In this paper, we argue that Chinese FDI in the United States is more likely to take the form of acquisitions than greenfield investments for the foreseeable future. However, there is no strong case to be made that the host country economic benefits from Chinese FDI would be larger if entry took place primarily through greenfield investments. Furthermore, most of the alleged costs to the US economy from inward FDI from China are either unlikely to occur or are already anticipated by existing US laws and regulations, thus necessitating no additional, specific legislation.

中国企业FDI区位选择：理论研究与实证分析

经济、社会高度发展的30年来,中国的综合国力有了显著增强,企业对外FDI的兴趣和行动不断增加,如何找到合适的投资区位已成为亟待研究的课题。理论界对FDI区位选择的研究早已有之,从Hymer的垄断优势理论到Kojima的比较优势理论,从针对发展中国家的“小规模技术模型”到对“逆向投资”现象的研究等等。文章梳理了区位选择理论的发展沿革,归纳了相关实证研究,并回顾了我国企业的对外投资实践,提出了我国企业对外FDI应借鉴创新升级理论的观点,摒弃进军大国的思路,而选择与我国贸易联系紧密、GDP总量达到一定规模、政治经济稳定、“心理距离”短的周边国家。     

Chinese institutions and standardization: The case of government support to domestic third generation cellular standard

There are unique and distinct institutional processes associated with the Chinese government's support of the domestically developed third generation (3G) cellular standard, TD-SCDMA. After postponing several times, China awarded three third generation cellular licenses in January 2009: a TD-SCDMA license to China Mobile, a CDMA 2000 license to China Telecom and a WCDMA license to China Unicom. The Chinese government has demonstrated a clear bias in favor of TD-SCDMA. This article examines the role of formal and informal institutions in shaping the Chinese 3G landscape. This paper makes two contributions to the literature. First, this work extends studies on institutional theory focusing on standardization to the context of China. Second, unlike most ICT research which deals with standards originated in the West, this paper's focus on developing country-originated standard provides novel and unique insights related to institutional processes.     

The effects of ownership concentration and corporate debt on corporate divestitures in Chinese listed firms

This study examines how ownership concentration and corporate debt impact corporate divestitures in China. Corporate divestitures reduce the asset base of a company and the opportunity for expropriation by majority shareholders. In emerging economies, weak legal institutions, combined with equity ownership concentration and high corporate debt, allow majority shareholders to avoid such disciplines. Consequently, the relationship between these governance mechanisms and divestiture activity exhibits a pattern that is different from that in developed economies. Using archival data collected from 1,210 Chinese listed companies during 1999–2003, we found that ownership concentration by the largest shareholder depressed corporate divestitures both in state-controlled and in non-state-controlled firms. The negative effect of corporate debt on divestitures only existed for state-controlled firms. Our finding provides corroborating evidence for principal–principal conflicts in emerging economies. It suggests that corporate strategy in these countries can be better explained by taking into account the unique agency problems that are prevalent in these economies.     

中国企业对俄直接投资的产业选择研究

虽然近几年中国企业对俄直接投资快速增长,但与双边贸易相比规模不大,仍处在起步阶段,如何促进中国企业对俄直接投资成为当前迫切需要解决的重大问题。从产业的角度来看,当前中国对俄直接投资不合理的产业分布是导致中国企业对俄直接投资的效率与效益低下的重要原因。因此,本文深入研究中国企业对俄直接投资的产业选择问题,提出了相应的产业选择基准,确定了中国企业对俄投资的产业方向并加以引导,以促进中国对俄直接投资的快速增长。     

Managerial ownership and corporate diversification: a longitudinal view

Strategy and finance research suggests that managerial ownership results in increased incentive alignment and therefore is negatively related to corporate diversification. Using a longitudinal approach, we develop arguments to examine whether managerial ownership is associated with subsequent changes in diversification and/or if diversification is associated with subsequent changes in ownership. The results indicate that levels of managerial ownership in one time period are not associated with subsequent changes in corporate diversification, which raises incentive alignment questions. We also find that higher levels of corporate diversification are associated with changes in managerial ownership, which suggests support for the employment risk‐reduction perspective. This study provides important reasons to reassess the longitudinal implications of the managerial ownership‐corporate diversification link from both theoretical and managerial perspectives. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Corporate ownership and control structures: An international comparison

This paper analyzes the economic fundamentals of the corporate firm with publicly held shares and the salient characteristics of varying corporate systems, focusing on international differences in ownership and control structures, including alternative disciplinary mechanisms. Those international differences seem to influence economic behavior and corporate performance, including the way in which corporate restructurings take place. Market-oriented corporate systems and network-oriented corporate systems are likely to mutually converge in the future.     

Media ownership and communications: Enriching the research agenda

This paper examines whether diverse opinions make their way into the communication policy decisions. Specifically, it examines whether academics from distinct disciplines engage one another and whether Federal Communications Commission (FCC) experts rely on a multidisciplinary body of research in making telecommunications-related decisions. After tracing how narrow expertise can lead to shallow policy perspectives, the paper employs a social network analysis of citations to assess the breadth of the media ownership debate. The case of media ownership was considered a worthy choice for analysis because it was so high on the policy agenda. The paper found that the media ownership policy network is extremely hierarchical; it comprises relatively few connected members around which clusters form and the majority of communication takes place. Lacking overlap among subgroups, there is very little interaction across disciplinary boundaries. An analysis of FCC citations demonstrates the impact that the dominant journals have on the FCC decision-making process, with significant implications for FCC decision making in all aspects of telecommunications.     

Management and ownership effects: evidence from five countries

Despite the growing recognition in the corporate governance literature that the relationship between ownership concentration and profitability is context dependent, this issue has not yet been subjected to direct empirical investigation using a single cross-national sample. This study empirically examines the ownership concentration–performance relationship across the nations of Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Essentially, we argue that the correlation (if any) between ownership concentration and firm profitability differs across countries in a systematic way determined by the national system of corporate governance. Results indicate that important and statistically significant differences do in fact exist across the countries studied. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.