The Influence of Host-Country’s Enviroments on the FDI Entry Mode Choice of Chinese Companies

Abstract

Based on a sample of 280 China’s listed companies with foreign direct investment (FDI) during 2005-2009, this paper examines how the country-specific factors influence these firms’ FDI entry mode choice between mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and greenfield investment. Our results show that in the presence of higher country risk or more rapid economic growth, the Chinese enterprises prefer the greenfield investment. When the host country has stronger national innovation ability or a higher level of human capital, the enterprises tend to choose the entry mode of cross-border M&As. An increase in the cultural distance, excluding the effect of other variables, appears to induce the enterprises to select M&A entry mode. However, when factor endowments and other institutional environments are taken into consideration, the cultural distance produces no significant effect on FDI entry mode choice of these Chinese firms.