IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/manint/v63y2023i5d10.1007_s11575-023-00519-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Protectionism and its Impact on MNC Subsidiaries’ Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Pervez N. Ghauri

    (Birmingham Business School University of Birmingham)

  • Shufeng Simon Xiao

    (Sookmyung Women’s University)

  • Byung Il Park

    (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies College of Business)

  • Seong-Jin Choi

    (Hanyang Business School, Hanyang University)

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between local protectionism and performance of multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries in China. We integrate overarching theories (i.e., institutional theory and extended resource-based view) to investigate a model for identifying whether local protectionism at the subnational level is beneficial or detrimental for foreign subsidiary operations or functions as a double-edged sword. We also examine whether or not internal organizational capabilities and relational capital with government moderate the effects. On the basis of regression analyses, our empirical findings reveal that the positive or negative effects of subnational protectionism in China depend on performance types. Moreover, performance contribution is considerably moderated by various internal capabilities of MNC subsidiaries. Findings offer valuable and practical implications for MNCs intending to invest in emerging economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Pervez N. Ghauri & Shufeng Simon Xiao & Byung Il Park & Seong-Jin Choi, 2023. "Protectionism and its Impact on MNC Subsidiaries’ Performance," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 63(5), pages 731-757, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:manint:v:63:y:2023:i:5:d:10.1007_s11575-023-00519-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11575-023-00519-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11575-023-00519-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11575-023-00519-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Meyer, Klaus E. & Thein, Htwe Htwe, 2014. "Business under adverse home country institutions: The case of international sanctions against Myanmar," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 156-171.
    2. Park, Byung Il & Ghauri, Pervez N., 2011. "Key factors affecting acquisition of technological capabilities from foreign acquiring firms by small and medium sized local firms," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 116-125, January.
    3. Chris Changwha Chung & Seung-Hyun Lee & Paul W Beamish & Takehiko Isobe, 2010. "Subsidiary expansion/contraction during times of economic crisis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(3), pages 500-516, April.
    4. Nguyen, Ha Thi Thu & Larimo, Jorma & Ghauri, Pervez, 2022. "Understanding foreign divestment: The impacts of economic and political friction," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 675-691.
    5. Wan, Feng & Williamson, Peter & Pandit, Naresh R., 2020. "MNE liability of foreignness versus local firm-specific advantages: The case of the Chinese management software industry," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(1).
    6. Xiao, Shufeng (Simon) & Park, Byung Il, 2018. "Bring institutions into FDI spillover research: Exploring the impact of ownership restructuring and institutional development in emerging economies," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 289-308.
    7. Popli, Manish & Ladkani, Radha M. & Gaur, Ajai S., 2017. "Business group affiliation and post-acquisition performance: An extended resource-based view," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 21-30.
    8. Klaus E. Meyer & Hung Vo Nguyen, 2005. "Foreign Investment Strategies and Sub‐national Institutions in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Vietnam," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1), pages 63-93, January.
    9. G Tomas M Hult & David J Ketchen & David A Griffith & Brian R Chabowski & Mary K Hamman & Bernadine Johnson Dykes & Wesley A Pollitte & S Tamer Cavusgil, 2008. "An assessment of the measurement of performance in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(6), pages 1064-1080, September.
    10. Ian Keay, 2019. "Protection for maturing industries: Evidence from Canadian trade patterns and trade policy, 1870–1913," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(4), pages 1464-1496, November.
    11. Sharma, Revti Raman & Nguyen, Thao Kim & Crick, Dave, 2018. "Exploitation Strategy and Performance of Contract Manufacturing Exporters: The Mediating Roles of Exploration Strategy and Marketing Capability," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 271-283.
    12. Rammal, Hussain G. & Rose, Elizabeth L. & Ghauri, Pervez N. & Ørberg Jensen, Peter D. & Kipping, Matthias & Petersen, Bent & Scerri, Moira, 2022. "Economic nationalism and internationalization of services: Review and research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(3).
    13. Simon J Evenett, 2019. "Protectionism, state discrimination, and international business since the onset of the Global Financial Crisis," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(1), pages 9-36, March.
    14. Krishna P. Poudel & Robert Carter & Subhash Lonial, 2019. "The Impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation, Technological Capability, and Consumer Attitude on Firm Performance: A Multi‐Theory Perspective," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(S2), pages 268-295, November.
    15. Farok J. Contractor, 2022. "The world economy will need even more globalization in the post-pandemic 2021 decade," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(1), pages 156-171, February.
    16. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    17. Xiao, Simon Shufeng & Jeong, Insik & Moon, Jon Jungbien & Chung, Chris Changwha & Chung, Jaiho, 2013. "Internationalization and Performance of Firms in China: Moderating Effects of Governance Structure and the Degree of Centralized Control," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 118-137.
    18. Ghauri, Pervez & Strange, Roger & Cooke, Fang Lee, 2021. "Research on international business: The new realities," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2).
    19. Cavusgil, S. Tamer & Deligonul, Seyda & Ghauri, Pervez N. & Bamiatzi, Vassiliki & Park, Byung Il & Mellahi, Kamel, 2020. "Risk in international business and its mitigation," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(2).
    20. Marcelo Cano-Kollmann & John Cantwell & Thomas J Hannigan & Ram Mudambi & Jaeyong Song, 2016. "Knowledge connectivity: An agenda for innovation research in international business," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 47(3), pages 255-262, April.
    21. Sanjaya Lall, 1996. "Understanding Technology Development," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Learning from the Asian Tigers, chapter 2, pages 27-58, Palgrave Macmillan.
    22. Weilei (Stone) Shi & Sunny Li Sun & Mike W. Peng, 2012. "Sub-National Institutional Contingencies, Network Positions, and IJV Partner Selection," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7), pages 1221-1245, November.
    23. Nielsen, Bo Bernhard & Asmussen, Christian Geisler & Weatherall, Cecilie Dohlmann, 2017. "The location choice of foreign direct investments: Empirical evidence and methodological challenges," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 62-82.
    24. Martin, Silvia L. & Javalgi, Rajshekhar (Raj) G. & Ciravegna, Luciano, 2020. "Marketing capabilities and international new venture performance: The mediation role of marketing communication and the moderation effect of technological turbulence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 25-37.
    25. Ziliang Deng & Ruey-Jer “Bryan” Jean & Rudolf R Sinkovics, 2018. "Rapid expansion of international new ventures across institutional distance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(8), pages 1010-1032, October.
    26. George Balabanis & Adamantios Diamantopoulos & Rene Dentiste Mueller & T C Melewar, 2001. "The Impact of Nationalism, Patriotism and Internationalism on Consumer Ethnocentric Tendencies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 32(1), pages 157-175, March.
    27. Long, Cheryl & Yang, Jin, 2016. "What explains Chinese private entrepreneurs' charitable behaviors?—A story of dynamic reciprocal relationship between firms and the government," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-16.
    28. John H. Dunning, 1977. "Trade, Location of Economic Activity and the MNE: A Search for an Eclectic Approach," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Bertil Ohlin & Per-Ove Hesselborn & Per Magnus Wijkman (ed.), The International Allocation of Economic Activity, chapter 12, pages 395-418, Palgrave Macmillan.
    29. Hakan Yilmazkuday, 2022. "Protectionism, Competitiveness and Inequality: Cross-Country Evidence from Soccer," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 171-192, April.
    30. Lenway, Stefanie & Morck, Randall & Yeung, Bernard, 1996. "Rent Seeking, Protectionism and Innovation in the American Steel Industry," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(435), pages 410-421, March.
    31. Jovan Grahovac & Douglas J. Miller, 2009. "Competitive advantage and performance: the impact of value creation and costliness of imitation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(11), pages 1192-1212, November.
    32. Ghauri, Pervez & Wang, Fatima & Elg, Ulf & Rosendo-Ríos, Veronica, 2016. "Market driving strategies: Beyond localization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 5682-5693.
    33. Pei Sun & Kamel Mellahi & Eric Thun, 2010. "The dynamic value of MNE political embeddedness: The case of the Chinese automobile industry," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(7), pages 1161-1182, September.
    34. Frattaroli, Marc, 2020. "Does protectionist anti-takeover legislation lead to managerial entrenchment?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 106-136.
    35. Bai, Chong-En & Du, Yingjuan & Tao, Zhigang & Tong, Sarah Y., 2004. "Local protectionism and regional specialization: evidence from China's industries," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 397-417, July.
    36. Zhang, Feng & Jiang, Guohua & Cantwell, John A., 2019. "Geographically Dispersed Technological Capability Building and MNC Innovative Performance: The Role of Intra-firm Flows of Newly Absorbed Knowledge," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 1-1.
    37. Shantanu Banerjee & Sunil Venaik, 2018. "The Effect of Corporate Political Activity on MNC Subsidiary Legitimacy: An Institutional Perspective," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 58(5), pages 813-844, October.
    38. Shantanu Banerjee & Sunil Venaik, 2018. "Correction to: The Effect of Corporate Political Activity on MNC Subsidiary Legitimacy: An Institutional Perspective," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 58(6), pages 1027-1027, December.
    39. Masaaki Kotabe & Srini S Srinivasan & Preet S Aulakh, 2002. "Multinationality and Firm Performance: The Moderating Role of R&D and Marketing Capabilities," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(1), pages 79-97, March.
    40. Sun, Wenbin & Price, Joseph & Ding, Yuan, 2019. "The longitudinal effects of internationalization on firm performance: The moderating role of marketing capability," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 326-337.
    41. Mukherjee, Debmalya & Makarius, Erin E. & Stevens, Charles E., 2018. "Business group reputation and affiliates’ internationalization strategies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 93-103.
    42. Xufei Ma & Tony W Tong & Markus Fitza, 2013. "How much does subnational region matter to foreign subsidiary performance? Evidence from Fortune Global 500 Corporations’ investment in China," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 44(1), pages 66-87, January.
    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. Xu, Kai & Hitt, Michael A. & Brock, David & Pisano, Vincenzo & Huang, Lulu S.R., 2021. "Country institutional environments and international strategy: A review and analysis of the research," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1).
    2. Zhang, Tingting (Grace) & You, Yu, 2021. "Scale or efficiency? Performance shortfall and engagement in production activities of foreign subsidiaries in China," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1).
    3. Röell, Christiaan & Osabutey, Ellis & Rodgers, Peter & Arndt, Felix & Khan, Zaheer & Tarba, Shlomo, 2022. "Managing socio-political risk at the subnational level: Lessons from MNE subsidiaries in Indonesia," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(3).
    4. Hutzschenreuter, Thomas & Matt, Tanja & Kleindienst, Ingo, 2020. "Going subnational: A literature review and research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    5. Huiying Luo & Xiaohui Liu & Aiqi Wu & Xiaotong Zhong, 2021. "Is it possible to escape? Local protectionism and outward foreign direct investment by Chinese privately-owned enterprises," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(4), pages 1499-1524, December.
    6. Jiang, Jiangang & Zhang, Jianhong, 2024. "National security review and ownership participation in cross-border acquisitions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(6).
    7. Weiqi Dai & Mingqing Liao & Qiao Lin & Jincai Dong, 2022. "Does entrepreneurs’ proactive attention to government policies matter?," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(3), pages 396-431, July.
    8. Zhao, Hongxin & Lu, Jiangyong, 2016. "Contingent value of political capital in bank loan acquisition: Evidence from founder-controlled private enterprises in China," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 153-174.
    9. Jinsil Kim & Kyun Kim, 2018. "How does local partners network embeddedness affect international joint venture survival in different subnational contexts?," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 1055-1080, December.
    10. Can Li & Danxue Gao & Weiguo Zhong, 2020. "A Political Cycle of Regional FDI Spillovers in an Emerging Market: Evidence from China," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 151-176, April.
    11. Dang, Quyen Thao & Rammal, Hussain Gulzar & Ghauri, Pervez N. & Jasovska, Pavlina & Velasquez, Santiago, 2024. "‘Caught in the middle’: Effects on and reactions of Vietnamese timber exporters in the context of US-China economic sanctions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 59(6).
    12. Pattnaik, Chinmay & Singh, Deeksha & Gaur, Ajai S., 2021. "Home country learning and international expansion of emerging market multinationals," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(3).
    13. Hitt, Michael A. & Li, Dan & Xu, Kai, 2016. "International strategy: From local to global and beyond," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 58-73.
    14. Shufeng Simon Xiao & Yong Kyu Lew & Byung Il Park, 2019. "‘2R-Based View’ on the Internationalization of Service MNEs from Emerging Economies: Evidence from China," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 643-673, August.
    15. Christine M. Chan & Jialin Du, 2021. "The dynamic process of pro-market reforms and foreign affiliate performance: When to seek local, subnational, or global help?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(9), pages 1854-1870, December.
    16. Piao, Xuelian & Park, Junmin & Chung, Chris Changwha, 2025. "Real options strategy and firm heterogeneity: Foreign multinational enterprises’ equity acquisition in Chinese international joint ventures," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(2).
    17. Daniel S. Andrews & Stav Fainshmidt & Michael A. Witt & Ajai Gaur, 2025. "Foreign policy: implications for multinational firms," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 105-119, March.
    18. Sun, Sunny Li & Peng, Mike W. & Lee, Ruby P. & Tan, Weiqiang, 2015. "Institutional open access at home and outward internationalization," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 234-246.
    19. Chakravarty, Dwarka & Goerzen, Anthony & Musteen, Martina & Ahsan, Mujtaba, 2021. "Global cities: A multi-disciplinary review and research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(3).
    20. Liu, Feifei & He, Xinming & Wang, Tao, 2023. "In the name of the family: The effect of CEO clan culture background on firm internationalization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).

    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:spr:manint:v:63:y:2023:i:5:d:10.1007_s11575-023-00519-z. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.