| In the context of economic globalization,with the “Belt and Road” initiative,Chinese construction firms have more opportunities for development in the process of expanding overseas markets.Internationalization has gradually become a means for firms to seek business expansion at the geographical level.Not only can a large number of overseas projects mitigate the effects of the cyclical downturn in the domestic construction market,but many contractors are able to secure their financial security by increasing their overseas turnover.The top management team(TMT),as the main decision-making management of a firm’s strategy,has a significant impact on its internationalization strategy.The current domestic and international research is not conclusive on the relationship between the characteristics of TMT,whether homogeneous or heterogeneous,and the degree of internationalization(DOI).The impact of the same characteristics on DOI varies across industries and countries,with positive,negative,inverted U-shaped curves,or no correlation,depending on the study.In the construction industry,there is a lack of research on the relationship between the demographic characteristics of TMT and internationalization,and it is an important issue to help construction firms open the “black box” of internationalization from the perspective of TMT composition.This thesis focuses on China,and in this political context,we argue that the firm ownership and political connection have an impact on internationalization strategies.This thesis examines the impact on firm internationalization in five dimensions:age,gender,tenure,education level,and foreign experience of TMT,in two dimensions: homogeneity and heterogeneity.Based on this,we further explore the impact of TMT characteristics at different levels of internationalization through quantile regressions,and firms can allocate their TMT according to the specific internationalization stage a firm.In addition,this thesis also explores the moderating role of firm ownership and political connection.Based on the literature review,this thesis takes Chinese construction engineering firms as the research object,and after screening and processing,56 firms are finally obtained as the research sample.Since the “Belt and Road” initiative was proposed as the starting point of the study,a total of 392 panel data are available from 2013 to2019.Through statistical regression analysis,the following conclusions were finally obtained:(1)the average age of TMT showed an inverted-U shape relationship with DOI;(2)the proportion of women in the TMT and gender heterogeneity had a significant positive impact on DOI;(3)the proportion of managers with foreign experience in TMT and foreign experience heterogeneity had a significant positive impact on DOI;(4)the average education level of TMT has a positive effect on DOI,and the heterogeneity of education level has an inverted-U shape relationship with DOI;(5)at different levels of internationalization,the impact of TMT characteristics varies,and firms should configure teams according to the specific stage they are in;(6)the firm ownership has a positive moderating effect on the proportion of women(and gender heterogeneity)and DOI;(7)political connection has a negative moderating effect on the proportion of women(and gender heterogeneity),foreign experience(and foreign experience heterogeneity)and DOI.The article hopes to provide a reference for the internationalization development of construction firms from the perspective of the composition of TMT. |
