The Paths of Internationalization of Chinese Innovative Firms

摘要

Innovative enterprises from emerging markets, such as China, are a group of understudied enterprises, which could generate new and important views on internationalization. Some unique characteristics of Chinese innovative enterprises are creating new ideas that help to a better understanding of entry mode choice, market location choice, and entry speed in the paths of internationalization. Drawing on an unbalanced panel of Chinese innovative enterprises’ outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) event data, we analyzed the tendency of the paths of internationalization of Chinese innovative enterprises and the determining factors that influence the Chinese innovative enterprises’ choice in entry mode, market location, and entry speed. The results show that: (1) Chinese innovative enterprises are more likely to choose developing countries than developed countries. (2) When these firms conduct investment activities in developed countries, the probability rank (from high to low) of entry mode choice is acquisition, along with the wholly-owned subsidiary, exporting and joint venture. When these firms expand the business in developing countries, the entry mode of export is most likely to be chosen and the acquisition is least likely to be chosen. (3) This tendency and paths choice of internationalization in entry mode, market location and entry speed are influenced by the international experience, the multidimensional proximity, psychic distance, internationalization motivation, ownership structure, and innovation ability. Finally, we discuss these contributions and make some suggestions for future research.