ORCID Profile
0000-0001-9544-252X
Current Organisation
The University of Auckland
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Publisher: Emerald
Date: 13-04-2022
Abstract: This study aims to examine an important mechanism in the policy-led institutional transitions in China, namely, Te Shi Te Ban (Special Treatments for Special Matters) – an institutional device that facilitates policy implementation. The discussions are contextualized based on the latest chapter of China’s institutional transition, known as the reform initiative of Fang Guan Fu (i.e. the FGF reform: delegate power, streamline administration and optimize government services), which is a policy regime introduced in 2018 to improve the state-market relationship for better socioeconomic development. Based on the theoretical lens of proto-institutions and institutional work and using real-life ex les from mass media, this perspective paper examines the effects of the Special Treatments in the institutional transition under the FGF Reform. The Special Treatments are the proto-institutions purposively adopted by the regulators in China to innovate, supervise and renovate the rules and norms during policy implementation. They produce both incremental and radical institutional effects which allow for a more efficient and effective policy-led institutional transition. This study contributes to institutional theory in the Chinese management context. Foremost, this study introduces the concept of proto-institutional work and shows how proto-institutions can serve as a mechanism to support and manage the process of institutional transition. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to study the FGF Reform – the latest reform initiative in China and theorize an under-researched but important mechanism in its institutional environment – the Special Treatments for Special Matters.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 03-10-2021
DOI: 10.3390/JRFM14100468
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between home country institutions and cross-border merger and acquisition (M& A) motives of MNEs from the Asia-Pacific region, with a focus on the role of regulatory quality and dynamics. We empirically examine how M& A motives are affected by elements related to risk of the institutional environment of the acquiring firm’s home country regulatory quality over time. The study is grounded in the general theory of springboard MNEs, and the institutional views of cross-border operations, namely the institutional escapism and institutional fostering perspectives. Using data on over 700 cross-border M& As of European firms by Asia-Pacific MNEs in 2007–2017, we analyze the rationales for these deals and their relationship to the institutional characteristics of the buyers’ home countries including regulatory quality and voice and accountability. We found that the quality of home country regulatory environment is significantly related to domestic firms’ motivation for international M& As. However, the significance and sign of the effects differ for different types of motives and over time. Our findings contribute to the literature on general versus emerging MNE-specific internationalization theories (particularly the theory of springboard MNEs) by expounding on the types and dynamics of cross-border M& A motives.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 06-11-2020
Abstract: This qualitative research explores how multinational enterprises (MNEs) respond to institutional pressure at home. Focusing on the case of China, a major source of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in the world, we analyze and theorize the meanings of firm actions within a policy regime designed for global competition. We find, in a country where its governments (both national and regional) seek OFDI development through policymaking, that domestic firms will confront these regulative interventions with four types of strategies—institutional compromise, institutional innovation, institutional manipulation, and institutional defiance—as they pursue value creation from internationalization. More importantly, these responses are driven by two key enabling conditions: the flexibility of the institutional arrangements and the actor’s position in the field. Our findings provide valuable insights for international business research surrounding the theme of home country institutional pressure and MNE agency.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 30-08-2023
DOI: 10.1177/00081256231193467
Abstract: This article discusses how Chinese multinational enterprises internationalize in an era of increasingly fractured globalization. It introduces new perspectives that identify and describe four strategic pathways these multinationals employ while acquiring strategic assets and building and leveraging capabilities to increase value from their international presence. The pathways—bouncing up, down, sideways, and back—depend on the multinationals’ strategies and the evolution of their internationalization. The pathways are distinct yet intertwined and influenced by powerful non-market forces, including geopolitical tensions (U.S.-China rivalry in particular) and Chinese domestic regulatory intervention. These dynamics manifest themselves in globalization, de-globalization, and re-globalization shifts.
Publisher: University of New Haven - College of Business
Date: 16-11-2022
DOI: 10.37625/ABR.25.2.355-389
Abstract: While institutional distance presents opportunities for development of the general theory of springboard MNEs, the direction of distance and its relationship to the motivations to springboard are largely ignored in the literature on emerging-market MNE (EMNE) internationalization. To fill the research gap, we develop a model of springboard motives, and incorporate institutional distance (including its direction) and ownership share as factors explaining them. Based on an empirical analysis of over 700 mergers and acquisitions (M& As) by EMNEs from 26 emerging economies in 2015–2017, we find that EMNEs tend to have capability-building springboard motives in cross-border M& A when they move down the institutional ladder from a higher to lower quality institutional environment (with larger negative distance in FDI regulatory risk). The capability-leveraging motive is positively related to distance in terms of FDI regulations (particularly legal protection) when the company moves up the institutional ladder. Importantly, these relationships are moderated by ownership share.
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Date: 26-07-2019
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 26-01-2021
Abstract: This paper aims to introduce a sociological view to analyze the Economic and Technological Development Zones (ETDZs) in China. The ETDZs are established to foster concentrated regional economic development. Currently, there are 219 national level ETDZs throughout the country, and they account for more than 10% of China’s total GDP. Given the scale of the Chinese economy, the economic significance of the ETDZs indicates an important phenomenon for better understanding. This paper conceptualizes the Chinese ETDZs with sociology concepts of place, institutional logics and habitus. The sociological view centers on how the ETDZs can naturally evolve with the participation of firms. The authors show that firms operating in the ETDZs can unintentionally alter the dynamics of the policy environment. A process model of place, logics and practice is developed to encapsulate these ideas. Conventional research on the connections between Chinese Government policies and business operations has been largely conducted under a political economy view which outlines a top-down logic (policymaking, followed by firms’ strategic response). The authors move away from this dogma by introducing a sociological view of the ETDZs. This new view highlights that a government-initiated policy environment in China can also evolve when firms are seeking to blend into the regulatory system, instead of trying to shape the coercive arrangements to suit their best interests.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2018
No related grants have been discovered for Zheng Joseph Yan.