ePrints

Patent- and trademark-seeking outward foreign direct investment by Chinese firms: The role of business group affiliation

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Xinwei ShiORCiD

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.

Abstract

We examine the relationship between business group affiliation (BGA) of Chinese firms and their foreign acquisitive behavior in terms of technology and brand-oriented strategic assets. Drawing on new internal- ization, business group, and international business theory, we assert that Chinese business group affiliated firms will more likely pursue foreign acquisitions to seek strategic assets including patents but less likely to pursue foreign acquisitions to seek trademarks. Patents have non-location-bounded (NLB) properties that mean they can be exploited by the business group—not just the firm—back in the domestic market, while trademarks have location bounded (LB) properties that mean they are less easy to exploit by a business group domestically. Using a sample of 779 Chinese cross-border acquisitions between 2006 and 2015, we find support for arguments relating to the differences in relative attractiveness of targets holding patents vs. trademarks for Chinese firms linked to business groups. We discuss how this better helps us understand emerging market MNEs and related theory.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Shi X, Williams C, Sutherland D, Rong K

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Industrial and Corporate Change

Year: 2022

Volume: 31

Issue: 3

Pages: 838-862

Print publication date: 01/06/2022

Online publication date: 23/12/2021

Acceptance date: 07/12/2021

ISSN (print): 0960-6491

ISSN (electronic): 1464-3650

Publisher: Oxford University Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtab073

DOI: 10.1093/icc/dtab073

Altmetrics

Share