Internationalization of Developing Country Firms into Developed Countries: The Role of Host Country Knowledge-Based Assets and IPR Protection in FDI Location Choice

Foreign direct investment (FDI) from developing to developed countries is a widespread phenomenon in the global economy. The literature suggests that such investments frequently follow a motive to seek knowledge-based assets, with the goal of augmenting the firm's resource base through internationalization. We argue that the prevalence of this motive may direct developing country firms' FDI toward developed countries with relatively stronger knowledge-based assets and weaker intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and that this effect is amplified when both conditions coincide. Furthermore, we suggest that the respective importance of knowledge-based assets and IPR protection diminishes as developing countries augment their own knowledge-based assets and that the importance of asset seeking as an internationalization motive for the country's firms declines compared with other motives such as institutional escapism. We investigate our model with FDI data including investment flows from 85 developing countries to 35 developed countries during 2009–2014. We find that developing country firms prefer investing in developed countries with stronger knowledge-based assets and weaker IPR protection. These criteria attract even more FDI when both co-occur. Furthermore, the influence of weaker host country IPR protection on the location decision diminishes for firms originating from home countries with higher stocks of knowledge-based assets.     

政治关联与财务困境公司的政府补助——来自中国ST公司的经验证据

本文以2002-2007年沪深两市的ST公司为样本,实证研究了企业的政治关联对财务困境公司获取政府补助的影响.结果显示:(1)民营企业的政治关联对企业处于财务困境时获取政府补助有显著影响,但对国有企业作用不显著.(2)考虑企业所处的地区环境差异之后,本文发现民营企业的政治关联优势受到地区财政富余程度的显著影响,而地方政府干预要起作用也受到地区财政状况的制约.只有在地方财政有充足财力的情况下,民营企业才可能利用政治关联获得更多的政府补助.(3)从政府补助的效果来看,政府补助虽然可以在救助当年明显改善公司业绩,但对公司长期业绩的提升作用却因企业政治关联程度和企业性质的不同而存在差异:政治关联较弱的民营企业获得的政府补助对公司长期业绩的提高作用显著,但对于国有企业以及具有较强政治关联的民营企业作用则不显著,这在一定程度上说明政治关联导致了政府补助资金的低效运作.     

An analytic hierarchy process based simulation model for entry mode decision regarding foreign direct investment

A methodology is developed for ranking entry mode alternatives encountered by individual firms considering foreign direct investment (FDI). The methodology deals with the risks and uncertainties related to FDI. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to solve the multiple criteria decision-making problem using input from a firm's management. A simulation approach is incorporated into the AHP to handle the uncertainty considerations encountered in an FDI environment. The uncertainties include: (1) uncertainty regarding the future characteristics of the FDI decision making environment, (2) uncertainty associated with the decision maker's judgment regarding pairwise comparisons necessitated by the AHP.     

Business groups' outward FDI: A managerial resources perspective

Outward FDI strategies are driven by firms' resource endowments, which in turn are conditioned by their home environment. In emerging economies, thus, the pattern of outward FDI is shaped by local firms' idiosyncratic contexts and the resources that these firms developed to fit the contexts. This includes business groups, a dominant organizational form in many emerging economies, competing with context-bound resources. When they wish to transcend their home context, they need internationally valuable resources, especially managerial resources, which may be quite different than the resources that enable domestic growth. This paper thus explores what resources drive this international growth in the case of Taiwanese business groups. Starting from Penrosian Theory, we focus on managerial resources that are shared across the member firms of a group, and thus shape the profile of the group. We find that international work experience favors internationalization while international education does not. Moreover, domestic institutional resources distract from internationalization, presumably because they are not transferable into other institutional contexts, and thus favor other types of growth.     

Dictators’ facial characteristics and foreign direct investment

This paper investigates whether foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows are higher in countries ruled by trustworthy-looking or competent-looking leaders. After collecting pictures of 276 nondemocratic leaders in office between 1975 and 2010, we use a computer-based survey to assess how these faces are spontaneously perceived by ordinary people for trustworthiness and competence. We perform regression analysis to evaluate the relationship between leaders’ facial characteristics and FDI inflows. We find that competent-looking leaders attract more FDI inflows. However, there is no evidence that trustworthy-looking leaders attract more FDI inflows.     

多代新技术的最优投资策略和扩散研究——一种实物期权方法

本文通过将新技术的出现描述为泊松过程,在未来多代新技术和投资成本随新技术出现不断下降的情形下,通过新技术采纳的累积概率分布函数,研究企业最优的技术投资策略以及新技术的扩散过程。在分析未来两代新技术的情形时,对比净现值(NPV)法则下得到的企业最优投资策略,由于NPV法忽视了企业推迟投资的期权价值,企业在NPV方法下只能得到次优的决策。数字释例显示出企业的技术采纳行为如何受到创新速度、折现率、投资成本及其下降幅度的影响。进一步在无穷代新技术的情形下,得到了企业最迟投资时间的计算方法。本文模型可以用来预测现实中企业的投资策略,并为实证分析新技术的采纳和扩散过程提供了理论支持。     

终极控制、资本投向与配置绩效

基于终极股东自利动机与资本投向选择差异的理论阐释,实证考察了终极控制下的资本投向结构分布及其对总体投资绩效的影响.研究发现:1)终极股东的现金流权越低,越有增加固定资产、无形资产和股权并购的资本投入,以及削减R&D投资的动机;2)随着现金流权的降低,地方企业集团的固定资产投资规模和增速增大,地方资产公司的股权投资增长趋势更为强劲,这与两类地方国有终极股东的运营模式和谋利能力密切相关;3)由于获取特许和垄断性使用权的难度较大,民营终极股东自利动机对无形资产投资的影响不显著;4)终极股东自利动机下的投资选择,不仅降低了整体的资本配置绩效,而且导致投资结构的异化.上述研究结论,对于从产权角度来理解中国经济高速增长背后的微观投资的非效率成因具有重要意义,也为进一步改善技术创新投资的产权激励机制提供了理论依据.     

Internationalization and Indigenous Technological Efforts of Emerging Economy Firms: The Effect of Multiple Knowledge Sources

Getting engaged in competitive international markets motivates exporting firms to enhance their technological competitiveness and invest in research and development (R&D). While in-house R&D investment is important for getting advanced technologies, the technologies needed by exporters located in emerging economies (EEs) typically readily exist overseas. Drawing on organizational learning literature, we argue that the R&D intensity stimulated by exporting may be reduced when 1) EE exporters are better prepared and motivated to absorb foreign knowledge, 2) foreign sources of knowledge are more available, and/or 3) local technology supply is poor. An analysis on 5592 automobile parts and component manufacturers in China during 2005–2007 supports these arguments. To compete in markets abroad, Chinese firms' R&D intensity increases with export intensity when their export intensity is low. As the export intensity exceeds a certain threshold, their R&D intensity starts to decrease as intensive exporters are better prepared and motivated to acquire knowledge from foreign sources. When substitutive foreign knowledge sources such as foreign parents and FDI spillovers in the local industry is available, firms' R&D intensity stimulated by exporting can be further reduced. Better local technology supply can increase the R&D intensity stimulated by exporting.     

政府治理、产权偏好与资本投资

本文从投资机会和融资约束视角分析了地方政府治理水平影响企业投资行为的机制,认为地方政府通过提供高质量的公共治理水平,帮助企业获得更多的投资机会和融资渠道,扩大企业投资规模,提高投资效率。以我国2005-2007年间上市公司为研究样本,本文实证检验的结果表明,较高的地方政府治理水平会提高公司的资本投资规模;政府治理影响企业资本投资与投资机会的敏感度在民营企业中更为显著,政府治理对国有企业资本投资的影响随着实际控制人的行政级别提高而降低。进一步研究发现,政府治理能够降低企业的融资约束,提高企业投资效率。     

企业超常业绩成因试析--基于资源能力观的经济租金理论解释

本文运用基于资源能力观的经济租金理论,对企业超常业绩问题进行了分析和阐述.与竞争优势概念相比,经济租金能够更清晰地界定企业业绩,揭示企业间存在的业绩差异.不同类型的经济租金,可以说明企业超常业绩产生所凭借内外条件的独特性.依据经济租金理论,还可对如何保持企业超常业绩的可持续性提出改进建议.     

Environmental Factors,Managerial Processes,and Information Technology Investment Strategies

Although significant research attention has been directed at understanding the value of information technology (IT) investments for firms, very little attention has been paid to understand the IT investment behavior of firms. This article seeks to fill this void. We introduce the concept of IT investment strategy, defined by dimensions of intensity and proactiveness, to characterize the IT investment behavior of firms. Synthesizing the environmental deterministic and strategic choice perspectives of a firm's strategic decision making, we examine the effects of environmental factors, managerial processes, and the interplay between them on IT investment strategy. Specifically, we examine the impact of environmental factors such as industry clockspeed and information intensity on IT investment strategy. We also incorporate the strategic choice perspective to argue that managerial processes such as frequent chief executive officer—chief information officer communications and collective information systems planning play a critical role in shaping the firm's IT investment strategy. The empirical results show that the environmental variables are related to IT investment strategy. Besides, managerial processes serve as a means to understand the environment and thus moderate the relationships between the environmental variables and the various facets of IT investment strategy. The conceptualization of IT investment strategy and the focus on both environmental determinism and strategic choice should enrich our understanding of firms’ IT investing behavior.     

DISTANCE AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT WHEN CONTRACTS ARE INCOMPLETE

We introduce incomplete contracts in a model where multinational firms from a certain country (“North”) can decide to serve a foreign market (“South”) through exports or through horizontal foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI relies on the supply of specialized intermediate inputs that could be supplied either by northern suppliers or by suppliers located in South. Intermediate sourcing contracts are complete in North but not in South. Were southern contracts also complete, FDI would arise only when trade barriers are high enough. Incomplete contracts in South generate, instead, a non‐linear relation between trade barriers and FDI as foreign investment emerges also when trade barriers are low enough. The reason is the positive effect that low trade barriers have on the bargaining power of final producers with respect to their southern suppliers. (JEL: F23, F12)     

基于建设时间的企业投资期权博弈均衡分析

本文在对称双头垄断时机选择期权博弈模型基础上引入了建设时间变量并进行了扩展,对企业研发投资策略均衡进行了分析.分析表明根据模型参数和投资初始时机不同,可能存在非约束共谋、序贯和同时投资策略均衡,随着项目建设时间的增加,企业的投资价值下降而投资临界值上升,市场需求波动对重复投资倾向产生主要影响,而与经济直观相反,建设时间和投资成本对重复投资没有影响,并为产业重复投资提供了一种解释.     

Capacity Investment Under Responsive Pricing: Implications of Market Entry Choice*

We consider a manufacturer’s new market entry problem when it already has some established facility in its existing market. We consider two common market entry strategies: the export strategy and the foreign direct investment (FDI) strategy. In the export strategy the firm increases the capacity at its existing facility and subsequently allocates the output to the existing and the new market dynamically, depending on realized market conditions. The export strategy is a flexible strategy. In the FDI strategy, the firm invests in a dedicated capacity to serve the new market only. The FDI strategy is a (partially) dedicated strategy. We study these two strategies from a planning perspective, that is, how the firm’s strategy choice influences the optimal capacity levels. We find that the firm’s strategy choice can significantly impact the optimal capacity investment levels. We prove, for example, that the firm may enter the new market in the export strategy but not in the FDI strategy, even if the capacity investment cost is identical in the existing and the new market. In addition, we prove that the firm may invest a strictly higher capacity level in the export strategy than that in the FDI strategy. We also prove that new market entry in the FDI strategy may strictly decrease the firm’s supply to its existing market but this is not so in the export strategy, and hence policy makers should carefully consider the implications of trade regulations on firms’ market entry choices.     

人力资源管理实践与企业绩效:基于动态环境的实证研究

根据对中国大陆企业人力资源部的经理和有关管理人员进行调查的111份有效问卷,分析经济转型和企业国际化的动态环境下,人力资本、人力资源管理实践与企业绩效的关系。通过质量和数量、匹配性、互补性、异质性这4个指标来衡量企业的人力资本,并以层级回归和多层次理论对假设进行实证检验。研究结果表明,人力资源管理实践对企业绩效的影响是通过人力资本的部分中介作用来表现的;动态环境会减弱人力资源管理实践影响人力资本的直接作用关系,以及减弱人力资本的中介作用,即与稳定的环境相比,动态环境在人力资源管理实践与人力资本间具有调节效应。     

Knowledge Spillovers from FDI: A Critical Review from the International Business Perspective

This paper reviews and organizes the theoretical and empirical research on foreign direct investment (FDI) knowledge spillovers from the international business perspective. In doing so, it develops a framework for the analysis of this phenomenon. The suggested FDI knowledge spillover framework integrates both the macro‐level (country, industry, institutions) and micro‐level (multinational firm, headquarters, subsidiary, local firms) antecedents of spillovers with their consequences, and proposes to analyse spillovers along three main attributes that characterize their occurrence, i.e. their magnitude, scope and speed.     

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS POLICY,COMPETITION AND INNOVATION

To what extent and in what form should the intellectual property rights (IPR) of innovators be protected? Should a company with a large technology lead over its rivals receive the same IPR protection as a company with a more limited advantage? In this paper, we develop a dynamic framework for the study of the interactions between IPR and competition, in particular to understand the impact of such policies on future incentives. The economy consists of many industries and firms engaged in cumulative (step‐by‐step) innovation. IPR policy regulates whether followers in an industry can copy the technology of the leader. We prove the existence of a steady‐state equilibrium and characterize some of its properties. We then quantitatively investigate the implications of different types of IPR policy on the equilibrium growth rate and welfare. The most important result from this exercise is that full patent protection is not optimal; instead, optimal policy involves state‐dependent IPR protection, providing greater protection to technology leaders that are further ahead than those that are close to their followers. This is because of a trickle‐down effect: providing greater protection to firms that are further ahead of their followers than a certain threshold increases the R&D incentives also for all technology leaders that are less advanced than this threshold.     

Country-of-origin determinants of foreign direct investment in an emerging market: the case of Mexico

Foreign direct investment (FDI) research has generally focused on inward FDI to large, developed nations. Very limited research has examined the country-of-origin factors that are related to FDI into the developing nations (emerging markets) that are becoming increasingly important in the global economy. In this paper, we provide the first empirical test of a multidimensional, country-of-origin model of factors related to FDI in an emerging market — Mexico. Economic, socio-political, and geographic factors are hypothesized to be important country-of-origin determinants of FDI into Mexico. The results indicate that some factors, such as the level of bilateral trade, home-country GDP, political risk, geographic distance, and exchange rates, are related to FDI into Mexico. At the same time, relationships between FDI and country-of-origin factors, such as market size (GDP) and cultural distance, that have previously held in research on FDI to large, developed nations do not hold in the same way in the emerging market context. Separate consideration of efficiency-seeking (maquila) FDI indicates that bilateral trade, wage rate, GDP, and the exchange rate contribute significantly to the explanation of inward FDI in Mexico.     

研发投入对企业绩效的影响研究 ——基于企业金融化水平门限回归

本文选取1435家A股上市公司2011—2018年度的面板数据,以企业金融化水平作为门限变量,研究企业研发投入对企业绩效的非线性影响关系。研究结果表明:(1)企业金融化行为给研发投入对企业绩效的促进作用带来严重的时滞效应,研发投入对当年企业绩效不存在促进作用;(2)研发投入对未来一年企业绩效有双门限效应,二者呈倒N型关系,在第二区间内研发投入促进未来一年企业绩效;研发投入对未来二年企业绩效有单门限效应,在第一区间内研发投入促进未来二年企业绩效;(3)在适度的企业金融化水平区间内,研发投入才会促进未来企业绩效。本文指出上市公司金融化水平最优区间占比分布具有区域、行业和企业性质异质性,并进一步基于实证研究结果提出了相应的政策建议,有利于企业合理管理研发投入和防止企业脱实向虚。     

Analyzing the impact of investment spikes on dynamic productivity growth

Firm-level data usually show that a large portion of firm-level investment takes place in a few investment episodes. This paper assesses productivity growth and its components in production framework that accounts for the dynamics of capital adjustment and relates this to investment spikes using firm-level data of the Spanish meat processing industry over the period 2000–2010. Using the method of impulse responses by local projections, it is shown that investment spikes produce a significant productivity change loss of 0.7% in the first year after the spike. The worsening of technology is the main cause of the reduction of productivity growth in the first year. Technology then improves in the fifth year as a result of investment spike, resulting in the U-shape pattern of relationship. Scale inefficiency significantly improves by 0.4% and 0.5% in the first and second year after the spike has occurred, respectively. All these effects, however, largely depend on the firms׳ size. In particular, it is shown that the loss of technology in the first year mainly pertains to smallest firms, while larger firms experience a negative impact on the contribution of technical inefficiency change to productivity growth.