Using data for Chinese manufacturing industry for 2001, this paper examines the impacts of foreign presence on the performance of locally-owned Chinese firms. Our key result supports a curvilinear functional form. Foreign penetration rates in excess of just about two third of industrial capital are associated with declining spillover benefits, indicating the dominance of negative spillovers. The curvilinear relationship is found to be particularly strong in labour-intensive industries, contrasting a standard linear relationship in technology-intensive sectors. The finding of the complexity of spillover effects challenges the laissez-faire view that 'the more inward FDI, the better' and that inward FDI into all types of domestic industry is equally valuable, in terms of performance benefits. Our findings argue for policy measures to strengthen domestically-owned Chinese industry, to provide effective competition to foreign firms and to absorb the benefits from spillovers more effectively.
This study examines the institutional mechanisms through which business groups impact innovation in emerging markets. Rather than merely viewing groups as the result of a weak institutional environment, this study proposes that there are complementary elements between groups and institutions, enabling groups to benefit from interactions with their institutional environment. Evidence from a large sample of Chinese firms indicates that the effects of groups on innovation are pronounced when the group is affiliated to a higher level government agency and when the level of region-specific marketization is higher. The findings point to the context-dependent nature of the innovation and the existence of both substitution and complementary effects between business groups and institutions.
Drawing from institutional polycentrism, we advance understanding of how affiliation with different government levels influences innovativeness and profitability in emerging countries. Our framework suggests that as different government levels vary in their objectives and resources, they affect firm innovativeness vis-à-vis profitability in qualitatively different ways. The analysis of 18,430 Chinese firms shows that affiliation with higher-level governments enhances firms' innovativeness, whereas affiliation with lower-level governments is effective for enhancing profitability. Our framework also clarifies how location-specific institutional substitution occurs, indicating that the usefulness of government affiliation for innovativeness depends on how effectively legal institutions protect intellectual property in each region.
In: Boateng , A , Du , M , Wang , Y , Wang , C & Ahammad , M F 2017 , ' Explaining the surge in M &A as an entry mode: home country and cultural influences ' , International Marketing Review , vol. 34 , no. 1 , pp. 87-108 . https://doi.org/10.1108/IMR-10-2014-0330
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the trends, patterns and the impact of cultural and home country macroeconomic influences on Chinese cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBM&A) as foreign entry strategy for the period of 1998-2011. Design/methodology/approach: Using three regression models, namely, ordinary least squares, the random effects and fixed effects to examine the impact of home country macroeconomic and cultural factors on CBM&A outflows as an entry mode of Chinese firms. The authors check the robustness of the results using system GMM. Findings: The findings suggest that CBM&A as a preferred mode of market entry provides a means for obtaining strategic resources to develop competitive advantages for the Chinese emerging market firms. The regression results indicate that home country macroeconomic and cultural variables, including gross domestic product (GDP), liquidity, interest rates, inflation, acquisitions in resource seeking sectors and cultural distance play an important role in explaining the trends of CBM&A outflows by the Chinese firms. Research limitations/implications: The results imply that government support to emerging market multinational enterprises (EMEs) to acquire strategic assets and economic policies in the home country play an important role in shaping international expansion behaviour of EMEs through CBM&A. The study demonstrates that outward investments of EMEs are partly a function of the level of economic policies and government support at home. The limitation is that most of the Chinese CBM&A transactions took place in Asia/Pacific locations. Future studies appear warranted if new data become available. Originality/value: The study demonstrates how the institutions, strategic asset seeking with government support and economic policies in the home country play important role in shaping international expansion behaviour of emerging market enterprises through CBM&A thereby contributing to the political economy literature and institutional theory. More importantly, the study shows that the level of economic policies and development such as GDP, money supply, interest rates, inflation of the home country are important for EME growth in the international market.