IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/asiaec/v29y2015i4p365-384.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Legal Traditions and Foreign Ownership Modes: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Quanlin Gu
  • Shaoan Huang
  • Yupeng Shi

Abstract

type="main"> Using census data gathered in 2001, the present paper examines how legal traditions influence foreign investors’ choice of ownership modes in China. The study finds that, first, investors from economies sharing the same legal origin with China tend to select ownership modes with a relatively high level of foreign control. That is, such foreign direct investment (FDI) firms are more likely to be wholly owned enterprises or joint ventures with relatively large foreign shares. Second, similarities in legal enforcement between China and the home economies correlate positively with high foreign control. Third, the effects of legal traditions on ownership modes are relatively weak for new entrants compared to their forerunners, probably owing to the continuous improvement in China's business and law institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Quanlin Gu & Shaoan Huang & Yupeng Shi, 2015. "Legal Traditions and Foreign Ownership Modes: Evidence from China," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 29(4), pages 365-384, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:asiaec:v:29:y:2015:i:4:p:365-384
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/asej.12079
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erin Anderson & Hubert Gatignon, 1986. "Modes of Foreign Entry: A Transaction Cost Analysis and Propositions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 17(3), pages 1-26, September.
    2. Andrei Shleifer & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Rafael La Porta, 2008. "The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 285-332, June.
    3. Mutinelli, Marco & Piscitello, Lucia, 1998. "The Influence of Firm's Size and International Experience on the Ownership Structure of Italian FDI in Manufacturing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 43-56, August.
    4. Dees, Stephane, 1998. "Foreign Direct Investment in China: Determinants and Effects," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 31(2-3), pages 175-194.
    5. David K Tse & Yigang Pan & Kevin Y Au, 1997. "How MNCs Choose Entry Modes and Form Alliances: The China Experience," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 28(4), pages 779-805, December.
    6. Zhao, Hongxin & Zhu, Gangti, 1998. "Determinants of ownership preference of international joint ventures: new evidence from Chinese manufacturing industries," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(6), pages 569-589, November.
    7. James R. Markusen, 1995. "The Boundaries of Multinational Enterprises and the Theory of International Trade," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 169-189, Spring.
    8. Javorcik, Beata S. & Wei, Shang-Jin, 2009. "Corruption and cross-border investment in emerging markets: Firm-level evidence," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 605-624, June.
    9. Gatignon, Hubert & Anderson, Erin, 1988. "The Multinational Corporation's Degree of Control over Foreign Subsidiaries: An Empirical Test of a Transaction Cost Explanation," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 305-336, Fall.
    10. Wei, Yingqi & Liu, Bo & Liu, Xiaming, 2005. "Entry modes of foreign direct investment in China: a multinomial logit approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(11), pages 1495-1505, November.
    11. Yigang Pan & David K Tse, 2000. "The Hierarchical Model of Market Entry Modes," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 31(4), pages 535-554, December.
    12. Daphne Yiu & Shige Makino, 2002. "The Choice Between Joint Venture and Wholly Owned Subsidiary: An Institutional Perspective," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(6), pages 667-683, December.
    13. Li, Jing & Rugman, Alan M., 2007. "Real options and the theory of foreign direct investment," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 687-712, December.
    14. Galina Hale & Cheryl Long, 2011. "Are There Productivity Spillovers From Foreign Direct Investment In China?," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(2), pages 135-153, May.
    15. Galina An & Keith E. Maskus & Thitima Puttitanun, 2008. "Duration of Rent Extraction and the Entry Mode Decision of Multinational Enterprises," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(4), pages 861-876, November.
    16. Chen, Haiyang & Hu, Michael Y., 2002. "An analysis of determinants of entry mode and its impact on performance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 193-210, April.
    17. Beck, Thorsten & Levine, Ross, 2002. "Industry growth and capital allocation:*1: does having a market- or bank-based system matter?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 147-180, May.
    18. Desislava Dikova & Arjen van Witteloostuijn, 2007. "Foreign direct investment mode choice: entry and establishment modes in transition economies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(6), pages 1013-1033, November.
    19. Mahoney, Paul G, 2001. "The Common Law and Economic Growth: Hayek Might Be Right," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(2), pages 503-525, Part I Ju.
    20. Yadong Luo, 2001. "Determinants of Entry in an Emerging Economy: A Multilevel Approach," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 443-472, May.
    21. WHALLEY, John & XIN, Xian, 2010. "China's FDI and non-FDI economies and the sustainability of future high Chinese growth," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 123-135, March.
    22. Zhang, Le-Yin, 1994. "Location-specific advantages and manufacturing direct foreign investment in South China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 45-53, January.
    23. Yigang Pan, 1996. "Influences on Foreign Equity Ownership Level in Joint Ventures in China," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(1), pages 1-26, March.
    24. Henisz, Witold J, 2000. "The Institutional Environment for Multinational Investment," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(2), pages 334-364, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Canabal, Anne & White III, George O., 2008. "Entry mode research: Past and future," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 267-284, June.
    2. Wei, Yingqi & Liu, Bo & Liu, Xiaming, 2005. "Entry modes of foreign direct investment in China: a multinomial logit approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(11), pages 1495-1505, November.
    3. Erdener Kaynak & Mehmet Demirbag & Ekrem Tatoglu, 2007. "Determinants of ownership-based entry mode choice of MNEs: Evidence from Mongolia," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 505-530, October.
    4. Larimo, Jorma & Arslan, Ahmad, 2013. "Determinants of foreign direct investment ownership mode choice: Evidence from Nordic investments in Central and Eastern Europe," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 18(2), pages 232-263.
    5. Zdolsek, Daniel & Kolar, Iztok, 2013. "Management disclosure practices for disaggregated (financial) information in Slovenian unlisted companies," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 18(2), pages 232-263.
    6. Shieh, Bih-Lian & Wu, Tzong-Chen, 2012. "Equity-based entry modes of the Greater Chinese Economic Area's foreign direct investments in Vietnam," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 508-517.
    7. Morschett, Dirk & Schramm-Klein, Hanna & Swoboda, Bernhard, 2010. "Decades of research on market entry modes: What do we really know about external antecedents of entry mode choice?," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 60-77, March.
    8. Demirbag, Mehmet & Tatoglu, Ekrem & Glaister, Keith W., 2009. "Equity-based entry modes of emerging country multinationals: Lessons from Turkey," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 445-462, October.
    9. Marlene Grande & Aurora A. C. Teixeira, 2011. "Linking entry mode choices of MNCs with countries’ corruption. A review," OBEGEF Working Papers 008, OBEGEF - Observatório de Economia e Gestão de Fraude;OBEGEF Working Papers on Fraud and Corruption.
    10. Nguyen Minh Ha & Quan Minh Quoc Binh & Pham Phi Dang, 2020. "Cultural Distance and Entry Modes in Emerging Markets: Empirical Evidence in Vietnam," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, January.
    11. Slangen, Arjen H.L. & van Tulder, Rob J.M., 2009. "Cultural distance, political risk, or governance quality? Towards a more accurate conceptualization and measurement of external uncertainty in foreign entry mode research," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 276-291, June.
    12. Liedong, Tahiru Azaaviele & Peprah, Augustine Awuah & Amartey, Abednego Okoe & Rajwani, Tazeeb, 2020. "Institutional voids and firms' resource commitment in emerging markets: A review and future research agenda," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(3).
    13. Zhi Shen & Francisco Puig & Justin Paul, 2017. "Foreign Market Entry Mode Research: A Review and Research Agenda," The International Trade Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 429-456, October.
    14. López-Duarte, Cristina & Vidal-Suárez, Marta M., 2013. "Cultural distance and the choice between wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2252-2261.
    15. Mehmet Demirbag & Ekrem Tatoglu & Keith W. Glaister, 2010. "Institutional and Transaction Cost Influences on Partnership Structure of Foreign Affiliates," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 709-745, December.
    16. Daniel Shapiro & Yao Tang & Cathy Xuejing, 2007. "Mode of Entry and the Regional Distribution of Foreign Direct Investment in China," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(3), pages 261-277.
    17. Demirbag, Mehmet & Glaister, Keith W. & Tatoglu, Ekrem, 2007. "Institutional and transaction cost influences on MNEs' ownership strategies of their affiliates: Evidence from an emerging market," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 418-434, December.
    18. Jane Wenzhen Lu & Wen Li & Aiqi Wu & Xueli Huang, 2018. "Political hazards and entry modes of Chinese investments in Africa," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 39-61, March.
    19. Anne-Wil Harzing & Markus Pudelko, 2016. "Do We Need to Distance Ourselves from the Distance Concept? Why Home and Host Country Context Might Matter More Than (Cultural) Distance," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 1-34, February.
    20. Todeva, Emanuela & Fu, Yan, 2010. "Multinational investment projects in the petrochemical industry in China," MPRA Paper 67615, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:asiaec:v:29:y:2015:i:4:p:365-384. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.