Home country macroeconomic factors and outward FDI of China and India

The current study examines the relationships between a few home country-specific macroeconomic factors and outward FDI flows of China and India using multiple time-series data from 1982 to 2006, and from 1980 to 2006 respectively. The focus is on the examination of Granger causal relationships through exogeneity analysis as well as the assessment of the short-term dynamic relationships between outward FDI flows and other system variables using vector autoregressive modelling. The research concludes that although China and India share similar inferences about the Granger causal relationships concerning outward FDI flows, the determination of the endogenous structure and dynamics of the multiple time series differ in the two countries.     

最终控制人性质、两权分离度与机构投资者持股——兼论不同类型机构投资者的差异

上市公司所有权与控制权的严重分离会影响其公司价值,进而会影响投资者的投资决策.本文以2004-2007年我国A股上市公司为研究样本,考察了上市公司两权分离状况对机构投资者总体和各类机构投资者持股决策的影响.研究发现,最终控制人所有权比例越高,两权分离度越小时,机构投资者(主要是证券投资基金)持股比例越高;而且两权分离度指标对机构投资者持股决策的影响在最终控制人为非国有性质的企业中表现更为明显.本文的研究结论表明.我国机构投资者总体上能够做到自我利益保护,在投资者保护方面发挥积极的作用,但是这种作用的发挥在各个类型机构投资者中存在显著差异.     

Racing to the bottom or seeking legitimacy? National environmental performance and the location strategies of Chinese MNEs

This paper studies the extent to which the international location patterns of Chinese MNEs privilege economies with environmentally sustainable practices. We develop a theoretical framework confronting the traditional race-to-the-bottom arguments with the Chinese MNEs' need to gain legitimacy abroad and signal their global citizenship. We also examine a set of conditioning factors pertaining to the heterogeneity of both host countries and firms, to explore potential sources of ethical pluralism in Chinese MNEs' location strategies. Empirically, we study 948 greenfield investments in manufacturing undertaken by Chinese companies in 82 countries over the 2013–2019 period. Our results suggest that Chinese MNEs may feed a downward spiral by favouring locations with fragile ecosystem vitality, that is, a weak sustainable use of natural resources with the consequent erosion of environmental quality. This result is driven by Chinese FDI in developing countries and locations with fragile institutional setting. Furthermore, the attracting force of a degraded environmental situation holds especially for Chinese MNEs operating in most polluting sectors and with private ownership.     

次大股东对过度投资影响研究——基于中国上市公司的经验证据

以我国2010年上市公司为研究对象,从次大股东的视角研究了次大股东对公司过度投资的作用。通过实证研究发现:在绝对控股股权结构下,次大股东不能对控股股东的投资行为发挥有效的监督作用;当次大股东为机构投资者时,不能减缓公司的过度投资现象。将负债分为高低2组,在高负债率组中,次大股东不能减缓公司的过度投资行为;在低负债率组中,次大股东能促进公司的过度投资行为。由此,我国上市公司的次大股东不能减缓公司的过度投资,其治理作用未能发挥。     

Ownership Structure and Value of the Largest European Firms: The Importance of Owner Identity

The paper examines the relationship betweenownership structure and value of the largestEuropean firms. Using simultaneous estimationand controlling for nation and industry effectswe find that ownership concentration (measuredby the fraction of ``closely held' shares) hasa positive effect on firm value (market-to-bookvalue of equity), when the largest owner is afinancial institution or another corporation. If the largest owner is a family or a singleindividual, ownership concentration has noeffect on firm value, and the effect isnegative if the largest owner is a governmentorganisation. Firm value is found to have apositive feedback effect on ownershipconcentration except for governments, whichhold higher stakes in low-value firms. Inother words, owner-identity matters,particularly in a Continental Europeaninstitutional setting where ownershipconcentration is high and minority investorprotection is low.     

股权结构、高管持股与公司绩效——来自民营上市公司的证据

本文以1999年至2003年的民营上市公司为研究对象,回避国有上市公司的非市场因素,研究股权结构、高管持股对绩效的影响。实证研究显示:第一大股东绝对控股时,其持股比例越高公司绩效越好,这时高管的股权激励无法发挥作用;当第一大股东持股比例低于20％时,高管的股权激励也无法发挥作用;当第一大股东持股比例在20％至40％之间时,其持股比例和绩效呈现倒U型关系,这时高管的股权激励发挥显著的作用。不同的股权结构对股权激励和绩效产生不同的影响,设计公司治理机制时应充分考虑这一因素。     

The impact of family CEO’s ownership and the moderating effect of the second largest owner in private family firms

This study explores two ownership issues in private family firms. First, we investigate the relationship between the ownership of family CEOs and firm performance, and postulate that this relationship in private family firms is more complex than the inverted “U” relationship found in public family firms. Second, we predict a potential moderating effect of the second largest owner, who may exert a monitoring role on family CEOs. We focus on private family firms as recent studies show that private family firms have distinct features compared to public family firms, and that findings documented in public family firms may not apply to the ubiquitous, but much less studied, private family firms. We have applied agency theory to develop the two hypotheses, used secondary data on a large sample of private family firms, utilized an adjusted conventional quadratic technique to test the hypotheses, and validated the findings using a second method of piecewise linear specification. The results show that the non-linear relationship between the ownership of family CEOs and firm performance is more complicated than the often-documented inverted “U” shape from public firms. Meanwhile, the second largest owner with a high enough ownership stake can impose a positive moderating effect by mitigating potential agency problems caused by family CEOs.     

机构投资者持股与上市公司违规行为的实证研究

本文采用部分可观测的Bivariate Probit估计方法,对2001年至2009年中国1729家上市公司进行回归检验,发现机构投资者持股比例降低了公司违规行为倾向,同时增加了公司违规行为被稽查的可能性。该结论在控制了机构投资者变量内生性的因素后仍旧稳健。进一步研究表明,相比公司经营违规,机构投资者对信息披露违规倾向的影响更强。另外,相比证券机构投资者,养老保险基金、社保基金、企业年金持股的公司中违规公司比例更低。除此以外,机构投资者对公司违规的抑制与检举作用并不受其它公司治理变量的影响。本文的研究表明中国机构投资者在预防与打击上市公司违规行为方面发挥了重要的作用,并且也为上市公司与监管部门提供了治理和防范企业违规的线索。     

外资特征与技术创新——基于中国省际数据分析

利用1997年至2009年中国15个省份的面板数据探讨外资特征对中国各省份技术创新作用的影响。从FDI的不同特征出发,研究来自不同国家的FDI、不同规模的FDI、折合成技术权重的FDI以及FDI在不同产业中的渗透强度等方面对中国不同省份技术创新的影响,探讨将FDI的不同特征细分以后可能出现的异质性结果。研究结果表明,来自欧美国家的FDI对于发明专利、外观专利有显著的正向效应,来自亚洲国家的FDI对于发明专利、外观专利有负向效应;企业规模对于发明专利、外观专利均有显著积极作用;外资在制造业中的比重越大,明显抑制了中国的技术进步;折合成技术权重的FDI对于发明专利、外观专利的影响也是显著为负。     

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.     

Investing Profitably in China: is it Getting Harder?

Using information from the Toyo Keizai, this article studies the performance of 2,962 foreign subsidiaries across the period 1985-1999 to show a picture of declining profitability from foreign direct investment by MNE’s in China. Despite the influence of macro-level factors, such as the historically fluctuating performance of the Chinese economy, we observed that of the many factors that may affect profitability, subsidiary-specific factors had the greater influence. The findings suggest that there are significant benefits for early entrants into the market, but caution against the use of high majority ownership control. Other evidence showed that larger subsidiaries tended to perform better. Managerial implications for MNEs and the future prospects of foreign direct investment in China are discussed.Since China opened up to the outside world in 1979, it has been attracting increasing amounts of foreign direct investment (FDI), and after 1993 became the second largest recipient of FDI flows in the world. Meanwhile, a major participant in the upsurge in global foreign direct investment in the 1990s was Japan. By the mid-1990s, Japan became the second largest FDI source country in the world behind the United States. China, in particular, has become a major destination for Japan’s direct investments, absorbing one-ninth of all Japanese foreign investments at the end of 1996.¹Studying Japan’s worldwide direct foreign investment, we found that the proportion of profitable Japanese subsidiaries in China has been declining. In fact, this was the only part of the world where this was the case. While over 71 percent of Japanese subsidiaries in China claimed profits in 1992, the percentage steadily slipped to around 50 percent by 1999 (see Table 1). This poses two interesting questions. Is it really getting harder to invest profitably in China? And what could have influenced the profit performance of foreign subsidiaries in China?     

股权制衡、终极所有权性质与上市企业非效率投资

本文采用基于海洋博弈的shapley指数,对我国上市公司第一大股东的实际控制度与股权制衡度进行了测度,在此基础上.运用门槛面板模型研究了股权制衡度、终极所有权性质与上市公司非效率投资行为的关系.结果表明:第一大股东对上市公司的实际控制度与上市公司的非效率投资行为表现为一种非线性关系;股权制衡能够抑制大股东利益主导下的过度投资行为,但过度的股权制衡会带来投资不足的问题;不同终极所有权性质对上市公司资源配置行为和股权制衡效果影响显著:相对于中央直属上市公司,地方政府控制的上市公司表现出强烈的过度投资倾向,且利益趋同效应在地方政府所属上市公司比较微弱,而中央直属和省级政府所属上市公司的股权制衡效果相对较差.     

Internationalization of family firms: the effect of ownership and governance

Despite family firm’s dominant role in economies worldwide, there is little empirical knowledge on their internationalization. Drawing on a sample of Austrian firms, this paper investigates the impact of family influence and various governance factors on internationalization. The findings reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between family influence and internationalization. Family firms with medium family influence are the most internationally active companies. This indicates that concerning internationalization the advantages of being a family firm are highest when the family’s ownership share and involvement in management and governance boards is not too extensive. Additionally, neither the incumbent generation, nor the level of non-family executives in the management board, nor the existence of a supervisory board has a significant influence on going international. Since advisory boards seem to foster internationalization, they might be an adjuvant means of equipping family firms with the necessary capabilities, know-how and contacts to operate internationally.     

Ownership structure and investment-cash flow sensitivity

This study investigates the effect of ownership structure on the use of cash flow in financing corporate investments—the investment-cash flow sensitivity—in a concentrated ownership context. Using a sample of 6797 French listed firms from 2000 to 2013, results show that investment-cash flow sensitivity decreases with the cash-flow rights of the controlling shareholder and increases with the separation of its cash-flow and control rights (excess control rights). Firms are, thus, less likely to use cash flow in investments when the interests of controlling shareholders are aligned with those of minority shareholders. However, they appear to use considerable internal funds for their investments when they have severe agency problems, driven by excess control rights of the controlling shareholders. Overall, our findings help advance the understanding of the role of agency relationship in shaping corporate financial policy.     

Equity Ownership in Cross‐border Mergers and Acquisitions by British Firms: An Analysis of Real Options and Transaction Cost Factors

The authors investigate the factors influencing the share of equity ownership sought in cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (CBM&As). Drawing on real options theory and transaction cost economics (TCE), they address and hypothesize key factors linked to commitment under exogenous uncertainty and the separation of desired and non‐desired assets’ influence on share of equity sought by acquiring firms in CBM&As. Empirical analysis based on 1872 CBM&As undertaken by British firms in both developed and emerging economies shows that British MNEs are more likely to pursue a partial acquisition in a target foreign firm when those foreign firms are from culturally distant countries. Further, findings support the view that the high cost of separating desired assets from non‐desired assets motivates firms to make a partial acquisition rather than acquire the target completely. This is one of the first studies to use real options theory to address the cost of commitment under exogenous uncertainty, as well as TCE logic to address the separation of desired and non‐desired assets in the target firm while analysing equity ownership sought in CBM&As. Empirically, this paper contributes by examining CBM&As by British firms in both developed and emerging markets.     

所有权安排对大股东控制权私利的影响研究

尽管所有权安排将通过所有权的性质、控制方式和结构比例等主要特征影响大股东控制权私利的攫取行为,但在不同国别和公共治理模式下却存在着利益目标抉择和诉求的相对差异。本文结合分级履行出资人职责的制度背景下,中央和地方国资委分别掌握上市公司终极控制权的基本特征,着重从所有权的控制方式和结构比例两方面阐释了我国上市公司大股东攫取控制权私利的动机、能力和实际效果差异。本文的研究结论将为股权分置改革和国有资产管理中配套法规的建立提供经验依据。     

中国企业对外直接投资的决定因素:基于制度视角的经验分析

本文结合中国经济转型时期的制度环境,对传统的国际折衷理论加以拓展,归纳出在中国经济转型的制度环境下,与企业对外直接投资决策密切相关的一系列特殊的制度因素,在此基础上建立一个中国企业对外直接投资决策的理论分析框架.然后以2006-2007年中国企业对外直接投资的微观数据为样本,对中国企业的对外直接投资的决策进行了多因素回归分析.实证结果表明,政府政策扶植、海外关系资源及自身融资能力对企业对外直接投资的动机和能力有重要影响.分类型研究表明,上述三种制度因素对贸易型、生产型、资源型和研发型对外直接投资的影响程度各有不同.     

The contribution of outward direct investment to productivity changes within China, 1991–2007

There has been a marked growth in recent years in outward direct investment (ODI) by developing countries, and in particular, by China. Previous studies have examined the impact on developing countries productivity of foreign direct investment (FDI) from developed countries. This paper looks at the effects of China's outward direct investment on growth in its own productivity, and at two specific reasons for this growth: technology sourcing and improvements in efficiency. These are examined using data from China's ODI in eight developed countries during the period 1991 to 2007. It appears that Chinese outward direct investment has had beneficial spill-over effects in improving total factor productivity growth over the period of the study, and that gains in efficiency have been the chief reason for this. Our vector auto regression (VAR) decomposition analysis also suggests that domestic R&D capital stocks are the most important source of productivity growth with greater contribution to technological progress. China is likely to continue to expand its ODI and it will be interesting to see whether the productivity gains continue at the same rate, and whether other developing countries also increase their ODI and reap the same benefits.     

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.     

跨国公司的跨境环境管理及其对中国的启示

随着跨国公司海外子公司数量的增加,其跨境环境管理对东道国环境的影响与日俱增.通过回顾相关文献,本文全面剖析了跨境环境管理的含义与类型划分、战略动力机制及其对公司绩效的影响.在此基础上,结合跨国公司目前在华的环境管理实践,提出了我国政府的对策,即提高环境标准、加强环境执行力和对环境战略转型者提供必要支持.