A Study on the Relationship Between Multinationality and Performance: Evidence from China’s Firms

Abstract

Purpose - Economic globalization provides firms with a new channel to gain benefits from foreign countries. Therefore, using the real MNEs, this paper set China’s firms as an example to explore the relationship between multinationality and performance. Research design, data, and methodology - Panel data from 2008 to 2017 was used and 390 multinational firms listed in China’s A-share market was selected. Additionally, related econometric methods were employed to analyze the relationship between multinationality and performance in this study. The return on assets was treated as a dependent variable, and the sales of a firm, the firm age, the debt asset ratio of a firm, the ratio of foreign sales to total sales and the enterprise properties were treated as independent variables. All of these factors were used to conduct an empirical analysis. Results - The empirical findings in this study revealed that there is a linear relationship between multinationality and performance, as well as that non state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) have a greater effect on the relationship between multinationality and performance than that of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Conclusions - On the basis of evidences this paper provided, China’s government should take measures in the future to help China’s firms when they fulfil international economic activities.