Research On The Internationalization Strategy And Innovation Of Chinese Firms

With the rise of the internationalization wave of emerging markets,the Chinese government has vigorously promoted domestic firms to go global for competition.However,the lack of legitimacy caused by constraints of the local institutional environment and the institutional distance have hindered the internationalization process of Chinese firms,leading their failure to achieve the expected catching-up effect.This dissertation attempts to study the internationalization strategy and innovation of Chinese MNCs from the perspective of institutional theory,using the qualitative and quantitative analysis.Specifically,this dissertation mainly focuses on the internationalization strategy and local innovation under the restriction of the domestic institutional environment,the legitimacy of overseas subsidiaries and the acquisition of overseas innovative resources,the legitimacy of the M&As from MNCs'parent companies and the acquisition of overseas innovative resources.This dissertation draws the following conclusions:First,government intervention is a key component of China's unique institutional environment,and it is also an important driving force for Chinese companies to launch the international wave.This unique institutional environment can also directly affect the process and results of their internationalization.This dissertation firstly conducts an empirical study on the relationship between internationalization and innovation under the constraints of the local institutional environment from the macro level.The results show that both trade exportation and OFDI can effectively promote the improvement of the local innovation.In regions where the degree of market liberalization is higher,the promotion effect is better.In the process of OFDI,compared with developing countries,the driving force for the improvement of China's local innovation capacity is mainly due to the reverse spillover benefits of technological innovation resources acquired in the process of investment in developed countries.The level of market liberalization still shows a positive moderating effect in the above relationship.Second,for overseas subsidiaries of MNCs that facing "liabilities of foreign",this dissertation finds that internal and external legitimacy both promotes the acquisition of overseas innovation resources.Furthermore,in terms of the construction of the legitimacy of overseas subsidiaries,the dissertation based on the theoretical analysis and deduction proposes they can increase their internal and external legitimacy by constructing their internal social capital within the MNCs and external social capital in host countries.However,the institutional gap between the home country and the host country has a moderating effect between external social capital and the external legitimacy of overseas subsidiaries.When faced with an institutional surplus,the positive effect of external social capital on the external legitimacy of MNCs' overseas subsidiaries is enhanced;in the face of an institutional deficit,the positive effect of external social capital on the external legitimacy of MNCs' overseas subsidiaries is weakened.Third,for the parent companies of the MNCs facing "liabilities of origin",the level of legitimacy of its cross-border M&As also effectively promote their subsequent acquisition of overseas innovation resources.Further research finds that in the process of reverse cross-border M&As by Chinese MNCs,the importance of internal and external legitimacy dynamically changes.In the pre-acquisition and during-acquisition stages,it is more important for the parent companies to obtain external legitimacy in the home country and the host country;in the post-acquisition stage,it is more important for parent companies to acquire and maintain its internal legitimacy in the host country.