We examine the extent to which Chinese government support of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects and host country institutional environments interact with prior entry experience by Chinese ...firms, and how this interrelationship affects FDI undertaken by Chinese firms. We hypothesize that home country government support and well-established host country institutions enhance organizational capabilities to take risks in FDI. As such, they reduce the need to accumulate experiential knowledge and capabilities relating to entering host countries based on prior entry experience in a particular country when undertaking follow-up investment projects. Using a unique, hand-collected panel data set of Chinese publicly listed firms during 2002-2009, we find that home government support and well-developed host country institutions reduce the importance of prior entry experience and significantly increase the likelihood of FDI entry into a host country. Further, from our subsample analyses we identify differences between entering developed and developing host countries in terms of the impact of home country government support and quality of host country institutions. Our findings help explain the puzzle concerning why emerging economy firms have rapidly internationalized in a short period of time and do not follow the pattern predicted by classical IB theories.
State-owned (SO) enterprises are subject to more complex institutional pressures in host countries than private firms. These institutional pressures arise from a weak legitimacy of "state ownership" ...in some countries, which arises from a combination of ideological conflicts, perceived threats to national security, and claimed unfair competitive advantage due to support by the home country government. These institutional pressures directed specifically at SO firms induce them to adapt their foreign entry strategies to reduce potential conflicts and to enhance their legitimacy. Testing hypotheses derived from this theoretical argument for subsidiaries of listed Chinese firms, we find that SO firms adapt mode and control decisions differently from private firms to the conditions in host countries, and these differences are larger where pressures for legitimacy on SO firms are stronger. These findings not only extend institutional theory to better explain differential effects on different entrants to an organizational field, but demonstrate how foreign investors of idiosyncratic origins may proactively build legitimacy in host societies.
Political risk spreads Bekaert, Geert; Harvey, Campbell R; Lundblad, Christian T ...
Journal of international business studies,
05/2014, Volume:
45, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
We introduce a new, market-based and forward-looking measure of political risk derived from the yield spread between a country's US dollar debt and an equivalent US Treasury bond. We explain the ...variation in these sovereign spreads with four factors: global economic conditions, country-specific economic factors, liquidity of the country's bond, and political risk. We then extract the part of the sovereign spread that is due to political risk, making use of political risk ratings. In addition, we provide new evidence that these political risk ratings are predictive, on average, of future risk realizations using data on political risk claims as well as a novel textual-based database of risk realizations. Our political risk spread measure does not make the mistake of double counting systematic risk in the evaluation of international investments, as some conventional measures do. Furthermore, we show how to construct political risk spreads for countries that do not have sovereign bond data. Finally, we link our political risk spreads to foreign direct investment (FDI). We show that a 1% point reduction in the political risk spreads is associated with a 12% increase in netinflows of FDI.
Local firms may attract productivity spillovers from foreign investors, yet these vary with local firms' awareness, capability and motivation to react to foreign entry. In consequence, spillovers ...vary across countries at different levels of economic development. We apply competitive dynamics theory to analyze these contextual moderators of spillovers, and test hypotheses thus derived in a meta-analysis of the empirical literature on spillovers. Our analysis suggests a curvilinear relationship between spillovers and the host country's level of development in terms of income, institutional framework and human capital.
This study investigates the value of the strategic flexibility provided by firms' international investments during an economic crisis, defined here as an unanticipated significant downturn in the ...economy. To avoid below-par performance, firms need to adapt quickly to this significant change in their environment, making real options very valuable to them. Although firms' international investments can potentially provide such flexibility, this issue has not been empirically examined in a context of such dramatic negative change. We consider two types of international investments by firms in this regard, foreign direct investments and export-related international investments, developing two measures that directly assess the flexibility derived from each that are new to the literature. Based on these measures, we find evidence that both types of international investments provided valuable flexibility for Korean firms during the economic crisis conditions. This study contributes to the literature by showing that firms with real options investments in place have a greater ability to flexibly adapt their overall operations in line with unforeseen negative environmental change, in contrast to firms without such investments.
This paper’s objective is to present a comprehensive view on the evolution of the Romania’s exports between 2018-2022 and its interdependence with imported goods and foreign direct investments in the ...same period. This topic is particularly relevant nowadays since world is going thru multiple crises that indicates turbulent times at least on short and medium term. Romania, with a long-term war at its borders, is facing the biggest challenges after the 2008 financial crisis and need to understand its current status quo on the international trade and areas on which should focus to obtain a competitive advantage through cost, differentiation, or both. These tempestuous times are an opportunity for Romania to address the current challenges and to assure a transition to a stronger and resilient economy. Therefore, the paper will analysis the Romania competitiveness in the international trade in the current context and will offer a view on the potential competitive advantages. Besides capturing the evolution of exports, imports and foreign direct investments, the paper includes recommendations that could be valuable for exporting companies and the government of Romania in understanding the potential actions that could be taken to obtain a competitive advantage.
In light of the upsurge in Chinese investments in Africa since Deng’s “Go Global” policy, we study whether the location choices of greenfield investors in Africa differ between Chinese and ...non-Chinese firms. We focus on risk- and information-related factors, i.e., investment protection provided by investment agreements and country-of-origin, industry, and internal agglomeration. We argue that Chinese firms enjoy ownership advantages that reduce their concern for risk. Our results show that Chinese firms are less sensitive to risk-mitigating factors compared to firms from advanced and other emerging economies. A lower reliance on internal agglomeration emerges as their distinctive trait in internationalization. We attribute this result to the systemic engagement of the Chinese government, which goes beyond state ownership and reduces the “liability of foreignness”. Chinese firms also appear more market-seeking and manufacturing-oriented, aggressively pursuing knowledge spillovers. Contrary to common perceptions, they do not seem distinctively resource-seeking or to pursue unstable countries.
•We compare Chinese vs non-Chinese FDI determinants in Africa at investment level.•Chinese FDI rely less on prior firm experience, country-of-origin agglomeration and IIA.•Market size and human capital are distinctive determinants of Chinese FDI to Africa.•Natural resources and political stability are not.•Findings are consistent with State support mitigating risk and providing information.
Reducing the CO2 footprint of Romanian manufacturing production under the positive influence of the EU foreign direct investments (FDIs) can have a substantial contribution to Romania’s presence on ...the EU common market. Moreover, it might contribute to the increase the country’s GDP. To prove the assumptions, the author developed an econometric model that he called „A predictive model of the CO2 emissions inter-country interaction”, based on multiple linear regression, using a highly unique and latest database published by Eurostat, in 2022. He also designed several scenarios regarding the positive impact on the Romanian economy based on reducing the CO2 emissions generated by the EU FDIs. In the base scenario, a 1.5% annual reduction of the CO2 emissions generated in Romania due to the FDIs originating from the EU Member States could stimulate an 1% annual increase of the intra-community deliveries. This impact would determine an increase of Romania’s GDP by 0.3%. To have a realistic contribution to achieving the goal of a net zero economic model, the EU FDIs should obtain, between 2025 – 2050, a ten-time decreasing rhythm of their CO2 emissions. From minus 0.4%, the actual average decrease annual level between 2010 – 2020, the FDIs must decrease their emissions by 4% per year. This would increase Romania’s annual intra-deliveries by 2.6%, adding 0.8% per year to Romania’s GDP growth.
This study examined the role of good governance in promoting tourism in emerging South Asian countries and also tested the mediating role of foreign direct investments (FDI). The study used panel ...data collected from seven South Asian countries from 1996 to 2018. Panel data regression
models were estimated to test the research hypotheses. The results showed that the country's good governance has a positive and significant influence on tourism receipts and arrivals. Moreover, the mediation analysis results supported that foreign direct investments mediated the relationship
between good governance indicators like government effectiveness, political stability, voice and accountability, and control over corruption and tourism. Based on the results, the study proposed the governance-led FDI and FDI-led tourism hypotheses, the study's main contribution. The
study has implications for the government regulatory agencies relating to governance, tourism departments, foreign prospect investors, and policymakers.
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