Belt and road initiative and Chinese firms' outward foreign direct investment

This paper studies the impact of China's “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) on Chinese firms' outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). Overall, the BRI positively impacts on Chinese OFDI activities. However, both the direction and the magnitude of this impact depend on the host countries' willingness to participate in the BRI. The BRI promotes more OFDI to developing countries that welcome China's economic engagement and alters the effect of Chinese domestic push factors on its OFDI patterns. In addition, Chinese firms in construction and infrastructure, manufacturing, and trade-related sectors are more responsive to the BRI than firms in other sectors.     

Outward FDI and Innovation Performance of Chinese Firms: Why Can Home-Grown Political Ties Be A Liability?

We explain how home-grown political ties of Chinese firms negatively influence the effect of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on the innovation performance of their parent firms. Our results show that these ties can turn into a liability in the host countries (particularly developed ones) due to their misfit with the local institutional environment, hampering the parent firms’ innovation performance from OFDI. We also clarify how absorptive capacity of the parent firm mediates the relationship between OFDI and innovation performance. Our study furthers understanding of the link between internationalization and innovation performance and the ‘dark side’ of political ties.     

The belt and road initiative,cultural friction and ethnicity: Their effects on the export performance of SMEs in China

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has provided Chinese firms with significant incentives to speed up the pace of internationalization. Yet very little international business (IB) research has been found to empirically examine such policy effects. This study explores this important issue using Chinese firms of different ethnicities in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China. We propose that the BRI has a positive formal institutional effect on the export performance of XUAR firms that target the “Belt” countries. Both cultural friction and ethnicity serve as the unique cultural contingencies that moderate the relationship between the BRI and export performance. More specifically, the cultural friction that results from the process of internationalization will negatively affect the export performance prompted by the BRI. The Uygur-owned firms will benefit more from the BRI due to their cultural similarity. Overall, the study takes the lead in investigating both internal conditions and external environments that promote and inhibit the internationalization process of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the XUAR that are geographically close to the “Belt” countries. The findings help enrich the understanding of the dual “push” and “drag” effects on the outcomes of SMEs’ international activities due to the government-led initiatives and the understanding of micro-foundation toward internationalization from an ethnicity perspective.     

“一带一路”倡议下投资母国的监管义务与法律对策

随着"一带一路"倡议全面、深入推进,中国企业海外投资进入新时期。然而,"一带一路"沿线国家投资环境复杂,中国企业面临社会责任风险以及沿线国腐败程度较高等新问题。现有国际规则无法有效处理东道国经济发展与这些问题之间的冲突和矛盾,不仅威胁中国企业的经济安全,更影响"一带一路"倡议的顺利实施。实践中,东道国宽松的法律环境、负责任的主权和维护国家形象的需要为母国监管提供了现实基础。因此,中国应以"自我约束"和"规则导向"为前提,在充分借鉴国际经验的基础上强化国内投资法律体系,从企业社会责任和海外反腐败两个方面积极承担投资母国的监管义务,主动规制中国企业的海外投资行为,实现国内法治与国际法治的良性互动。在企业社会责任方面,中国应针对海外投资者企业社会责任问题专项立法,提高中国企业承担社会责任的标准,区分企业性质、承担不同的社会责任标准以及建立社会责任评估体系;在海外反腐败方面,中国应完善惩治海外投资腐败行为的立法并加大执法力度,同时增强"一带一路"沿线国的刑事司法协助以及提高惩治海外投资腐败活动的力度。     

Frames and facilitators by China in promoting the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)

Much larger than the U.S. Marshall Plan, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), with over $5 trillion global infrastructure projects, is a major undertaking by the international communities, proposed by the Chinese government. Adopting a multimethod approach of employing textual analysis, participant observation, and framing analysis, this article uncovers that Chinese government and state‐run media promote BRI with proper rhetorical frames and institutional facilitators. The six frames are “Development,” “Mutual respect and mutual trust,” “Ancient Silk Road Story,” “Action Speaks Louder than Words,” “China is a Partner, not a Colonialist,” and “Win‐Win.” Since 1949 and especially in the past two decades, China has cultivated a global ecosystem with at least nine facilitators that support BRI. These facilitators are Chinese Soft Power, South–South Cooperation, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, China & ASEAN FTA, RCEP, 16+1, AIIB, Silk Road Fund, and The New Development Bank. With BRI, China leads a new wave of globalization: Globalization 5.0. This article proposes a three‐step strategy for Western companies to benefit from the China‐led Belt and Road Initiative: from rising above pre‐existing frames in your mind (stereotypes), to be open minded for new frames (new thinking), to participate in BRI for win–win outcomes (opportunities).     

Analysis of Domestic Factors Affecting Outward Foreign Direct Investment in Brazil

Developing markets have increasingly gained prominence in the world economy, but the domestic factors behind this success are not well established. This uncertainty may interfere with multinational expansion plans. In this article, we examine several macroeconomic and institutional factors affecting Brazilian outward foreign direct investment in 17 destination countries. We applied a pooled ordinary least squares regression over the 2001–2014 period. The findings suggest that macroeconomic factors are still statistically significant to explain investment abroad, but several institutional factors such as corruption have emerged, having a negative effect and political violence having a positive effect on Brazilian outward foreign direct investment.     

Is the cure worse than the disease? The effect of emerging market MNEs on host country corruption

In recent years, there has been an exponential increase in the amount of foreign investment by emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). While it has been debated whether EMNEs strengthen or weaken the institutions in host countries they invest in, the literature has paid limited attention to how EMNE investment impacts corruption in other emerging markets, one of the most significant destinations of EMNEs. Following Hoskisson et al. (2013), we categorize two types of emerging markets as targets of EMNE investment, a) low-income emerging markets and b) middle-income emerging markets, based on their institutional and market development. Building on the theory of firm-specific advantages (FSAs) and the institutional advantage (IA) of EMNEs, we reason that EMNEs enter foreign markets in accordance to where their skills and competencies can be effectively utilized, and this impacts corruption in the host country. We make two key arguments: (1) EMNEs predominantly use their IA in low-income emerging markets, which in the long term increases corruption in the host market, and (2) EMNEs predominantly use their FSAs to gain competitive advantage in middle-income emerging markets, which decreases corruption in the host market. Empirical analysis of Chinese outward FDI from the 2008-2018 period supports our hypotheses. Our research contributes to both the literature on EMNEs and corruption.     

“一带一路”沿线国家投资便利化对中国对外直接投资的影响:理论与经验证据

文章通过构建投资便利化评价指标体系,运用熵值法定量测度"一带一路"沿线国家的投资便利化水平,并基于拓展引力模型实证检验其对中国对外直接投资(OFDI)的影响。研究发现:"一带一路"沿线国家投资便利化建设能够显著促进中国OFDI增长,其中制度质量改善对中国OFDI的促进作用最大。异质性分析表明,亚非地区、中等收入水平、资源禀赋欠丰富、市场潜力大以及与中国投资合作信任度高的沿线国家通过推进投资便利化建设,对中国OFDI的促进作用更明显。机制检验表明,沿线各国推进投资便利化建设,可以通过削减投资成本、提高投资效率以及降低投资风险等渠道对中国OFDI产生显著正向影响。最后聚焦行业差异的分析表明,沿线国家投资便利化建设能显著促进中国制造业和服务业OFDI扩展边际的提高,且对后者的促进作用更大。     

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.     

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.     

Should I stay or should I go now? Understanding terrorism as a driver of institutional escapism

Prior empirical research has examined the effects of terrorism on foreign direct investment. These studies reveal the negative impact of terrorism on national economies, but neglect to theorize and examine how terrorism drives institutional escapism by promoting outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) to countries with lower risk levels. This study proposes and tests a rationalist explanation that builds on the concept of institutional escapism for how terrorism encourages increased levels of OFDI, particularly to countries with reduced risk. Drawing on the resilience, political violence, and international business literatures, we demonstrate through a unique global dataset of 22,873 observations, 5584 home-host country pairs, and 153 countries over 16 years (1995–2010) that terrorism induces institutional escapism in terms of OFDI.     

替代出口还是促进出口——我国对外直接投资对出口的影响研究

自2002年以来,我国对外直接投资发展迅猛,迅速增长的对外直接投资会促进我国对东道国的出口还是会用海外生产来替代我国对该国的出口呢?本文结合我国对外直接投资与出口贸易的现实情况,通过构建一个影响出口的引力模型,并利用我国2004-2010年35个国家的面板数据进行了混合回归模型分析。研究结果表明,我国对外直接投资对出口贸易存在明显的促进作用,且无论是发达国家还是发展中国家,这种促进效应都存在。因此,对于我国目前而言,无论是对发达国家的逆向上行投资,还是对发展中国家的顺向下行投资,都是具有贸易创造效应的海外投资。     

Friend or Foe? On the role of institutional reforms in the investment development path of Central and East European economies

Many existing studies on emerging markets and firms have concentrated on the separate effects of institutional reforms and quality of the institutional infrastructure for attracting inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and fostering outward FDI. We argue that both these perspectives should be considered in an interplay, as there are links between inward and outward FDI in a country's economic development, which is captured by the investment development path (IDP) concept. Moreover, while predominant attention has been paid to emerging markets, little has so far been done to evaluate the sustainability of the institutional development, including later post-transition stages. We extend the IDP with insights from the institutional theory and conduct a comparative analysis of the effects of institutional reforms on IDP paths of ten Central and Eastern European (CEE) post-communist European Union (EU)-members. We find that while most of the studied post-transition economies follow a quadratic relationship between the net outward investment (NOI) position and each country's economic development, the role of institutional reforms is not in all cases accelerating the movement through the stages of the IDP. We attempt to explain the ambiguous role of institutions in an ensuing detailed discussion of the investigated countries.     

Sustaining Inter-organizational Relationships Across Institutional Logics and Power Asymmetries: The Case of Fair Trade

This paper explores an empirical puzzle, namely, how inter-organizational relationships can be sustained between organizations that draw upon distinctive—and potentially conflicting—institutional logics under conditions of power asymmetry. This research analyses cases of these relationships and suggests some key conditions underlying them. Examining relationships between ‘Fair Trade’ organizations and corporate retailers, a series of contingent factors behind the dynamic persistence of such relationships are proposed, namely: the presence of pre-existing ‘hybrid logics’; the use of boundary-spanning discourses; joint tolerance of conflict; and co-creation of common rules. These four elements are supported by a fifth mediating factor, i.e. the presence and use of a Fair Trade certification system in the collaboration. The latter appears as a central vehicle facilitating cross-logic relationships—it can be seen as a ‘boundary object’ embodying a series of narratives and discourses that are open to multiple interpretations corresponding to the dominant institutional logics of each partner organization.     

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.     

Pro-market institutions and outward FDI of emerging market firms: An institutional arbitrage logic

We offer new theory and evidence regarding the effects of pro-market institutions on outward foreign direct investment (FDI) of emerging market firms (EMFs). Drawing on the logic of institutional arbitrage, we integrate the escapism and exploitation mechanisms of EMF internationalization into a unified theoretical context. We propose an inverted U-shaped relationship between host market-supporting institutions (MSI) and the investment scale of an EMF’s FDI project in the country, showing an escape-driven upward slope for low-to-medium MSI levels and an exploitation-driven downward slope for medium-to-high MSI levels. We supplement this main argument with two boundary conditions: the alleviating effect of home market liberalization (HML) and the strengthening effect of home government subsidies (HGS), demonstrating the coexistence and variation of pro- and anti- market institutions in an emerging market. Using information on 1,450 FDI projects conducted by 288 Chinese listed firms in 116 host countries, we obtain supportive evidence for the predicted relationships between the three institutional forces. This study enriches the literatures on institutional arbitrage and pro-market institutions with evidence from EMFs.     

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.     

Chinese FDI in New Zealand: What Are Chinese Investors Looking For?

In recent years, there has been unparalleled growth in outward foreign direct investment from China. Traditional Western‐dominated international business theory proposes that asset exploitation is necessary for firms undertaking foreign investment. However, more recently, studies suggest asset augmentation is more important for multinational enterprises from emerging countries. This article examines the acquisition by two Chinese firms—Agria and Haier—of two iconic New Zealand firms, each with a significant international presence—PGG Wrightson and Fisher & Paykel. The article determines that Agria and Haier invested to acquire strategic assets in order to strengthen their position in the Chinese market as well as build and sustain a global position. Strategic intent was an important factor in deciding where to invest, and strategic assets complementary to their own competitive advantages were sought by the Chinese firms. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Varieties of entrepreneurship: exploring the institutional foundations of different entrepreneurship types through ‘Varieties-of-Capitalism’ arguments

While entrepreneurship researchers agree that institutions ‘matter’ for entrepreneurship, they also have a rather encompassing understanding of institutions as almost any external factor that influences entrepreneurship. Ultimately, this literature thus comes up with a long list of institutional factors that may explain entrepreneurial differences between countries. But which institutions are most influential? How do these institutions relate to different types of entrepreneurship? And to what extent are institutions complementary to each other in the way they sustain different entrepreneurship types? The literature on ‘Varieties-of-Capitalism’ (VoC) offers a parsimonious theoretical framework to address these questions. Based on the VoC literature, we theoretically derive a consistent set of institutional indicators that can explain differences in entrepreneurship types between countries. Based on principal component and cluster analyses, we illustrate how 21 Western developed economies cluster around four distinct institutional settings. Furthermore, we use simple OLS regressions to show how these institutional constellations are related to different types of entrepreneurship. We conclude that four different ‘Varieties of Entrepreneurship’ can be identified across the Western world. The main implication of our findings is that a ‘perfect’ institutional constellation, equally facilitating different types of entrepreneurship, does not exist. Policy-makers seeking to stimulate entrepreneurship are thus faced with the trade-off of targeting policy reforms to that entrepreneurship type they intend to promote—at the expense of other types of entrepreneurship and the broader societal consequences such reforms will have.     

The emergence of Korean and Taiwanese multinationals in Europe: prospects and limitations

Although the outward orientation of the Korean and Taiwanese economies in the past was confined to their export activities, during the last decade and a half they have emerged as important home countries of overseas investment. In this contribution, special attention is paid to their investment activities in Europe, about which very little is known. After a short theoretical discussion of their ‘deviant’ (‘late’) industrialization patterns, the investments of two Korean (consumer electronics) and two Taiwanese (computer) companies in Europe are examined in detail. Special attention is paid to their actual operations in the region, the motivations to invest and the problems faced in building up a strong position in this part of the industrialized world. It will be shown that the late industrialization nature of the Korean and Taiwanese economies has considerably influenced their internationalization patterns.