Family Firms' Foreign Direct Investment Entry Mode Choice:the Influence Of Socioemotional Wealth,Investment Motivation And International Experience

When family firms(FFs)decide to invest abroad,the primary content of their strategic decision is how to enter the host country market.Different entry mode means different ownership and control,and different degree of resource commitment and risk taking.Therefore,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to study FFs'choice of foreign direct investment entry mode.This paper is based on the socioemotional wealth(SEW)theory and resource-based theory,and probes into the influence mechanism of family SEW,investment motivation and international experience on FFs' FDI entry mode of Chinese FFs.From the perspective of ownership,the entry mode of FDI is divided into two types,which include wholly owned subsidiary(WOS)and joint venture(JV).This paper firstly divides the SEW into restricted SEW and extended SEW,and studies how the difference of SEW influence FFs' FDI entry mode.Secondly,considering the investment motivation is an important strategic factor in FFs' FDI entry mode decision,this paper focus on the specific influence of the three motivations:resource seeking,asset seeking and market seeking.Thirdly,experience learning is on the direct driving force in enterprise internationalization.Most of the related studies are based on the mechanism of "international experience-entry mode",this paper will focus on the moderating role of internationalization experience,which includes the research mechanism of "SEW-international experience-entry mode" and"investment motivation-international experience-entry model".This paper investigates the FDI launched by the Forbes Chinese FFs during the period of 2005 and 2015.The data is from the Ministry of Commerce of China and the enterprises opening data.A binary logistic regression analysis of the data is made by using SPSS software.The results show that compared with the extended SEW dominant FFs,the restricted SEW dominant FFs are more likely to choose WOS in FDI,and the international experience has no significant moderating effect on them,but the direction is positive;the stronger FFs' resources seeking motivation is,the greater the possibility of choosing WOS in FDI,international experience plays a positive role in regulation;the stronger FFs' asset seeking and market seeking motivation is,the greater the possibility of choosing JV in FDI,international experience plays a negative role in regulation.This paper is helpful to expand the perspective of FFs' FDI entry mode and promote the research of FFs' FDI entry mode choice under the situation of emerging economies,such as China.Also,it provides an important theoretical basis for our government to improve their service for internationalization firms and provides theoretical and practical guidance for FFs'internationalization.