The influence of political risk, inertia and imitative behavior on the location choice of Chinese multinational enterprises: Does state ownership matter?

Purpose Drawing on the institutional perspective, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how state ownership moderates the relationships between political risk, inertia and mimetic behavior, and the location choice of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs). Design/methodology/approach The authors argue that state ownership leads Chinese firms to behave toward political risk in an unconventional way, and that government support makes them less dependent on their own and other Chinese firms’ prior host country experience. The authors tested the hypotheses using data on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) decisions made by 186 Chinese firms in 93 countries. Findings The authors found that Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), compared to non-SOEs, are more likely to move into countries with high political risk, and that they are less likely to be inertial and mimetic. Originality/value Building on the distinction between macro- and micro-political risk, The authors contribute to the political risk literature by developing several arguments that explains why political risk varies across investing firms in a given host country. Moreover, this is one of the first studies of its kind to investigate the moderating effect of state ownership on the relationship between inertial and mimetic behavior, and the location choice of Chinese MNEs.