The Influence Of Ownership Dispersion On Speed Of Internationalization From The Perspective Of Resource Dependence Theory

Since the implementation of "Going Global" Strategy and the affiliation with the WTO,China's outward foreign direct investment(OFDI)has increased exponentially.While the accelerated internationalization has created huge profits for Chinese firms,it has also attracted the attention of an increasing number of scholars.In addition,with the standardization of Chinese capital market and modern corporate governance system,many scholars have focused on the impact of firms' ownership structure on their performance.But there are only a few discussions about the role of equity structure in the field of international business,even part of the research is mainly based on the perspective of agency theory and exists divergent conclusions.It should be noted that in the process "Going Global",Chinese firms need sufficient and diverse resources to support their survivals and developments in the international markets due to the lack of competitive advantages and liabilities of foreignness.The shareholders of the firms,especially the top ten shareholders,are important sources and supporters of firms' resource acquisition.A resource dependence relationship has formed between firms and their shareholders.Therefore,from the perspective of resource dependence theory,this study investigates the theoretical logic of the influence of firms' ownership structure on speed of internationalization based on two mechanisms of resource acquisition and resource leverage and explores the drivers of Chinese firms' rapid internationalization.Meanwhile,considering the significant influence of external environment on firms'internationalization,this study considers the moderating effects of two environmental attributes-environment munificence and environment uncertainty-on the relationship between ownership structure and speed of internationalization.Taking Chinese A-share listed firms as research objects,this study has collected the data from 3317 overseas subsidiaries of 849 listed firms during the period from 2010 to 2014 from Wind database,CSMAR database and firms' annual reports(source:Cninfo net).Drawing from the empirical analysis,several conclusions are given "below.(1)There exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between Chinese firms' ownership dispersion and their speed of internationalization.(2)Environment munificence will flatten the inverted U-shaped relationship.When ownership structure is overly concentrated or dispersed,firms' speed of internationalization will be faster.But when the shares are relatively moderate,the speed will slow down.(3)Environment uncertainty will sharpen the inverted U-shaped relationship.That is to say,firms' speed of internationalization will become slower when facing overly concentrated or dispersed ownership structure.But the speed will become faster when the ownership dispersion is relatively moderate.This study expands the research of corporate governance in the field of international business and put forward the two-way analysis of resource dependence theory which contains resource acquisition and resource leverage.Also,it explains the differences in existing empirical evidences about the relationship between ownership structure and internationalization from the perspective of resource dependence theory.