An Empirical Study On The Evolution Of Chinese Companies’ International Expansion Process—From The Perspective Of Ambidexterity

With the "going out" strategy and "one belt and one road" project of Chinese government, foreign direct investments of Chinese companies have grown rapidly and radically. Under the cirmstances, it is important to study how Chinese companies take advantage of opportunityes in the international markets and maintain sustainable development. Researches about the internationalization of Chinese companies mainly focus on the static dimension of the internationalization, lacking the dynamic dimension of the internationalization which is more important. As a result, how to study the internationalization proceess from the perspective of international ambidexterity which is proved to be approiprate for analyzing the internationalization of Chinese companies is the main subject of this dissertation.In order to answer these questions, what are discussed and studied are as follows:Firstly, the connotation of international ambidexterity is analyzed. As it is pointed out in this article, the construct "international ambidexterity" has already been proposed and discussed as dynamic capability by other scholars in international business area. However, it is merely confined to gradual internationalization and accelerated internationalization, and the international exploitation process and international exploration process. International ambidexterity is considered as two separate processes which is not enough and needs to be enriched theoretically. Base on the literature review about ambidexterity, the theoretical logics of international ambidexterity are proposed from the perspective of parent companies, which are the adaptation logic of international ambidexterity and the alignment logic of international ambidexterity. The adaptation logic of international ambidexterity is that companies view different types of overseas subsidiaries as strategic tools, by sensing, seizing and reconfiguring to attain competitive advantage and fit. The alignment logic of international ambidexterity complements the adptation logic of international ambidexterity, which means the alignment of parent company and overseas subsidiaries. All the companies including parent company and overseas subsidiaries exploit resources and capabilities synergistically and operate towards the same goals. The two logics of international ambidexterity not only emphasize the nature of international ambidexterity as dynamic capability, but also pay attention to the internal alignment of parent company and overseas subsidiaries in the same international network built by parent company. The explanation of international ambidexterity in this article is not confined to the explanation of viewing exploitation and exploration as two ends of a continuum nor the explanation of viewing exploitation and exploration as orthogonal. The internal alignment of parent company and different types of overseas subsidiaries should be taken more seriously in the process of international expansion, which enriches the connotation of international ambidexterity theoretically.Secondly, the international process is characterized by using different international dimensions in this article. In the international business literature, in characterizing the process of internationalizaiton of Chinese companies, most of the research papers in China involve the degree of internationalization (DOI) only and focus on the relationship between internationalization and performance. Few research papers involve the international breadth, depth, speed and rhythm which are more important and thorough. As the direct connection between the degree of internationalization and performance is considered as a black box in international business literature, deeply studying the international process rather than merely focusing on the single static dimension of international process may be more critical for understanding the connetion. Researchers have proposed the dynamic dimension of the process of internationalization, such as the speed of internationalization, the rhythm of internationalization, which can explain the reason why the same degree of internationalization has produced different outputs (firm performance). As a result, in this article the dynamic dimension of international procee is studied together with the static dimension of international process, which can explain the international characteristics of Chinese companies better. The static dimension of international process consists of the degree of internationalization, the breadth of internationalization, the depth of internationalization. The dynamic dimension of international process consists of the speed of of internationalization and the rhythm of internationalization. These two different dimensions are studied together in this article to characterize the process of internationalization better and thoroughly.Thirdly, the international expansion process is analyzed from the perspective of evolution, which is proposed by Hannan et al. (1996) and Siggelkow (2002). Base on their research, the process of configuration and fit was extended into characterize the process of internationalization. There are three different types of international strategies in the international business literature, which are gradual international strategy, bon-global strategy and born-regional strategy. Different international strategies may induce different evolution proceese of companies’internationalization. Different evolution proceese of companies" internationalization are analyzed accordingly. Based on literature review of ambidexterity, different types of international ambidexterity are put forwarded and these evlution processes are analyzed accordingly. In order to characterize different evlution processes clearly, one special case of Chinese listed company named LiuGong is analyzed thoroughly.Fourthly, a conceptual model about international ambidexterity, international process, rescources and performance is built in this article. It is criticed that a handful of unrepresentative case studies are taken to support the importance of globalization for Asian firms. Although some case studies are taken to study Chinese companies’ ambidexterity in the process of international expansion, empirical research of longitudinal data is rare. As a result, a longitudinal study is taken in this article. The data collection is hard and takes a lot time, which needs many means to obtain information to be validated. Data about international ambidexterity and international process is collected from annual reports of Chinese listed companies and Ministry of Commerce of China. Financial data and data about resoureces are collected from CSMAR. Other important data is collected from CSMAR, National Bureau of Statistics of China and the webside of Chinese listed companies and through further Internet searches. Panel data with 1452 observed values from 2008 to 2013 of 242 Chinese listed companies is built and analyzed using the stata 12.0 software. Twelve hypotheses are proposed and tested. The main conclusions are as follows:(i) There is a positive relationship between international ambidexterity and performance. Different indicators of performance are taken during the empirical study and this result is robust, (ii) The international procee has impact on the relationship between international ambidexterity and performance which is studied from two dimensions. First, as to the static dimension of the international process, the breadth of internationalization and the depth of internationalization moderate the relationship between international ambidexterity and performance by weakening the positive relationship. Secondly, as to the dynamic dimension of the international process, the rhythm of internationalization has negative effect on performance and moderates the relationship between international ambidexterity and performance by weakening the positive relationship. (iii) As to the moderating effect of resources on the relationship between international ambidexterity and performance, potential slack moderates the relationship between international ambidexterity and performance by strengthening the positive relationship. Absorted slack moderates the relationship between international ambidexterity and performance by strengthening the positive relationship.The moderating effect of intangible rescources on the relationship between international ambidexterity and performance has not been supported.