| After 40 years of rapid development,China’s economy has entered a transition period from high-speed development to high-quality development,which poses new challenges and opportunities to the development and upgrading of enterprises.With the continuous enhancement of China’s comprehensive national strength and the trend of global economic integration,China has closer contacts with other countries in politics,economy,culture and education.Never before have the countries of the world been so closely linked,but the cooperation is also full of competition,and Chinese enterprises are facing more and more trade friction,policy restrictions and other non-economic factors.In the face of the complex and volatile political and economic situation in the world,Chinese enterprises constantly adjust,optimize and upgrade their industrial structure.The Chinese government has been long encouraging and supporting the globalization of competitive enterprises and providing a series of policies,regulations and service system for that.At present,protecting the benefits of Chinese enterprises’ transnational merger has become an urgent issue.Therefore,this paper empirically analyzed the influences of political mutual trust on Chinese enterprises’ cross-border mergers and acquisitions.This paper constructed a research framework of political mutual trust from the perspective of game theory.Nowadays,the contact among countries is mainly aimed at economic benefits.The hypothesis of economic rationality holds that decision-makers make rational choices to maximize benefits.Therefore,the interaction among countries is a process of repeated games to maximize long-term benefits,and political mutual trust is the basis of relations among countries.This paper studied the influence of political trust on cross-border mergers and acquisitions by building a research framework of political mutual trust from three aspects: the credibility mechanism formed and strengthened by the two sides for long-term relation,that is,the historical friendly relationship established between China and other countries;the two sides have formed or had some contractual relationship,namely the friendly mutual trust between the two sides in response to and participating in the One Belt and One Road Initiative and other international affairs;and the emotional preferences cultivated and established by both side,that is,to face the future,enhance cultural soft power and build mutual trust through international education.On this basis,combined with relevant theoretical analysis,this paper designed three studies:(1)Diplomatic relations and cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises;(2)Signing the MOUs on the One Belt and One Road Initiative and cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises;and(3)international education and cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises.The Study I explored the impact of diplomatic relations on cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises.Diplomatic relations can provide enterprises with country-specific advantages(CSAs)in cross-border M&A and convert such country-specific advantages into enterprise-specific advantages.Based on the theoretical analysis,this chapter put forward two hypotheses:(1)The longer the year of diplomatic relations between China and the host countries is,the larger the M&A scale of Chinese enterprises in the host countries is;(2)The longer the year of diplomatic relations between China and the host countries is,the higher the success rate of M&A of Chinese enterprises in the host countries is,Tobit,Logit and other measurement methods were used to analyze the data of cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises from 2008 to 2018 by correlation and regression.The results showed that the longer China has established diplomatic relations with the host countries,the more conducive it was for Chinese enterprises to implement cross-border M&A in the host countries,and the higher the success rate of cross-border M&A was.Besides,the longer China has established diplomatic relations with developed countries such as European countries and the United States,the more conducive to cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises.The longer the years of diplomatic relations between China and host countries was,the more conducive to cross-border M&A of state-owned enterprises and enterprises in traditional industries.Study Ⅱ explored the impact of signing the MOUs on the One Belt and One Road initiative on cross-border M&A of Chines enterprises.The implementation and promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping has brought win-win results for both China and the host countries,and reflects the deepening political mutual trust between China and other countries in international affairs.This chapter put forward three sets of research hypotheses on the basis of theoretical analysis:(1)The signing of the MOUs on the Belt and Road Initiative can promote the M&A of Chinese enterprises in the host countries;(2)The signing of the MOUs on the Belt and Road Initiative can effectively reduce the M&A premium of Chinese enterprises in the host countries;and(3)The signing of MOUs on the Belt and Road Initiative can enhance the success rate of the M&A of Chinese enterprises in the host countries,Tobit,Logit,Differences-in-Differences(DID)and other measurement methods were used for correlation analysis and regression analysis.The results showed that the One Belt and One Road Initiative not only enhanced the political mutual trust between China and the countries along the Belt and Road,but also promoted M&A of Chinese enterprises in the countries along the route.The signing of the MOUs on the One Belt and One Road Initiative had a significant positive effect on the scale of M&A of Chinese enterprises in the countries along the route,which increased the success rate of M&A of Chinese enterprises and reduced the M&A premium of Chinese enterprises.Study Ⅲ was to explore the impact of informational education on cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises.The experience of studying abroad has a profound impact on shaping outlook on life and value of students,and has a good political and diplomatic function and cultural exchange function.Based on the theoretical analysis,this chapter put forward a set of competitive hypothesis: the enlargement of international students size in China can promote the cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises,or the enlargement of informational student size in China can reduce the cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises;A set of general hypotheses: the better the dispatched international students in China,that is,the higher the proportion of award-winning international students in the host country,the more favorable the M&A of Chinese enterprises in the host country.Tobit,Logit,Differences-in-Differences(DID)and other measurement methods were also used for correlation analysis and regression analysis.The results showed that the enlargement of the scale of international students in China from the host countries would not promote the scale of Chinese enterprises’ M&A in this country,but would reduce the scale of Chinese enterprises’ M&A in this country,increase the M&A premium of Chinese enterprises,and reduced the success rate of Chinese enterprises’ M&A.However,recruiting excellent students with Chinese government scholarships would help Chinese enterprises expand the scale of M&A in host countries and reduce the merger premium.The main contributions of this paper are as follows:Firstly,it deepened the theoretical perspective of the impact of non-economic factors on cross-border M&A.Traditionally,the theory of information asymmetry and the institutional theory are used to analyze cross-border M&A.This paper introduced the theory of national image and repeated game theory for theoretical analysis.The national image theory holds that the national image is a compound collective imagination covering three levels of material,system and concept.From the aspects of material level,the rapid development of China’s economy attracts international students.From the aspects institutional,international students have more understanding of China’s politics,economy and culture after studying in China,So as to depict the changing image of China at the conceptual level and enhance understanding and mutual trust.Although there are occasional regional conflicts,the repeated game theory holds that peace and development are the mainstream in today’s world.The long-term peaceful coexistence of countries makes it necessary to political mutual trust to establish political mutual trust to reduce the cost of cooperation and contact among countries.Political mutual trust can only be formed in repeated games,and the longer the relation among countries is established,the more conducive to information exchange and the higher the degree of mutual trust.Secondly,this paper expanded the research perspective of the existing non-economic factors of cross-border M&A.Most of the researches on cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises started from the perspective of the host countries’ system,value chain and culture,and add control variables such as economic status,resource endowment,geographical distance,bilateral trade volume and labor cost.In this paper,the research framework of political mutual trust was constructed from forming and strengthening the mutual trust mechanism of long-term interaction;forming or having a certain contractual relationship;cultivating and establishing emotional preference.And concertized these into three dimensions: the historical friendly relationship between China and other countries;the mutual trust between China and other countries in response to and participating in the One Belt and One Road Initiative and other international affairs,and the future building of mutual trust based on the soft power of culture by education of international students.Thirdly,research conclusion.The study found that to strengthen political mutual trust was conducive to cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises.But,in terms of cultivating and establishing emotional preferences,namely,the education of international students,simply expanding the scale of international students in China from a host countries would not promote the scale of M&A of Chinese enterprises in that country,but would inhibit the scale of M&A of Chinese enterprises in that country,increase the M&A premium and reduce the success rate of M&A.However,the recruitment of outstanding international students from the host countries with Chinese government scholarships would promote the cross-border M&A of Chinese enterprises and reduced the negative correlation of M&A premium in that country,especially for developing countries.This is a constructive conclusion to our current international student education,which suggests that while expanding the scale of international students,we should further improve the quality of training,standardize the training system and attract more excellent international students to study in China.At the same time,because of China’s higher level of economic development and higher quality of education compared with other developing countries,more attention can be paid to attract students from developing countries.For students of developed countries,we need to continue upholding economic development as the central task,unremittingly enhancing the overall national strength,deepening reform,improving the level of the rule of law and institutions,developing and carrying forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture,and enhancing China’s cultural soft power.Finally,this paper summarized the research conclusions and put forward policy suggestions: strengthen the policy guidance,and pay more attention to the guidance of investment methods,investment target industries and post-investment management while actively supporting domestic enterprises to globalize;adjust investment structure,encourage cross-border investment in high-tech industries and the real economy,and steadily promote the Belt and Road cooperation;strengthen international coordination and regional economic integration,strengthen and improve the construction and management level of free trade areas,and create a favorable international investment environment;improve the international education system and the international scholarship system,expand educational resources and channels,and enhance cultural soft power;expand financing methods,eliminate the preference for financial support of enterprises scale,fully consider the growth and sustainable development ability of enterprises cross-border M&A,so as to provide financing support for cross-border M&A;grasp the timing of cross-border M&A,prudently select the target enterprises,and fully consider the internal and external factors affecting cross-border M&A;strengthen the construction of cross-border M&A teams,and cultivate a batch of cross-border M&A talents that are proficient in politics,economy,culture and law. |
