Hybrid State-Owned Enterprises and Internationalization: Evidence from Emerging Market Multinationals

This article examines the internationalization strategy of hybrid state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Hybrid SOEs with mixed state and private ownership adopt different strategies in the internationalization process as the level of state ownership changes. In particular, we compare majority SOEs and minority SOEs and examine the moderating role of majority SOEs in different relationships. First, majority SOEs are more likely than minority SOEs to react favorably to the government’s advocacy of going abroad. Second, majority and minority SOEs utilize different types of resources when they enter foreign markets. While majority SOEs are more likely to rely on external resources such as debts to go abroad, minority SOEs are more likely to rely on internal resources such as intangible assets. An empirical investigation of Chinese-listed hybrid SOEs between 1991 and 2016 supports these arguments.