Ownership structure and OFDI by EMNES: the moderating effects of international experience and migrant networks

This study investigates the effect of ownership structure – ownership concentration and firm ownership – on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs), and further explores the moderating effects of international experience and migrant networks on this relationship.

Data of Chinese MNEs listed on Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges between 2005 and 2016 are used. The empirical analysis is based on the negative binomial regression model.

The empirical results reveal a significant inverted-U relationship between ownership concentration and OFDI by EMNEs. State ownership is found to have a positive effect on OFDI by EMNEs. Both international experience and migrant networks strengthen the inverted-U relationship between ownership concentration and OFDI as well as the positive effect of state ownership on OFDI by EMNEs.

EMNEs need to maintain a moderate ownership concentration when conducting OFDI, and they are supposed to make full use of their own international experience and focus on migrant networks of the host country. Policy-makers in emerging economies need to better create a fair business environment for enterprises.

Combining agency theory and the resource-based view, this study integrates ownership structure, firm-level heterogeneous resources – international experience and country-level heterogeneous resources – migration networks into a framework to study OFDI by EMNEs, which expands the scope of research in international business.