Will Enterprise Ownership Affect the Performance of Foreign Direct Investment? Based on the Perspective of Institutional Logic

Abstract

In recent years, Chinese enterprises have been developing rapidly with the encouragement of the “Belt and Road” initiative, setting off a new wave of direct investments in foreign. On the stage of global trade competition, one of the biggest differences in companies between Chinese and Western lies in the forms of enterprise ownership. Does enterprise ownership have an impact on the performance of direct investment in foreign? This study takes the inter-provincial panel data of 571 listed companies in China from 2014 to 2017 as a sample. Based on the practices and characteristics of Chinese enterprises’ direct investment in foreign, we use a institutional logic perspective to explore the impact of enterprise ownership on performance of the investment. The study found that non-state-owned enterprises perform better in the investment; state-owned enterprises have more resource-seeking Chinese enterprises’ foreign direct investment (OFDI), while non-state-owned enterprises tend to choose market-seeking OFDI; market-seeking OFDI has better performance than resource-seeking and technology OFDI performs better. The research proves that the corporate ownership has an impact on the performance of the investment. The conclusions of this paper are helpful to adjust national policies as well as provide a reference for Chinese enterprises in decision marking from institutional perspective.