IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/manint/v63y2023i2d10.1007_s11575-023-00501-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Zone of Conformity: A Comparison of Private and State-Controlled Enterprises in M&As

Author

Listed:
  • Sunny Li Sun

    (University of Massachusetts Lowell)

  • Young Jin Ko

    (Sungkyunkwan University)

Abstract

Drawing from the literature on institutional pressure, we argue that firms with different ownership types have different strategic options in domestic and overseas markets, namely the zone of conformity. State-controlled enterprises (SCEs) have a broader range of acceptable actions than do private-controlled enterprises (PCEs) in a domestic market but face more sanctions and stricter conformity requests in an overseas market. The concept of the zone of conformity predicts SCEs have a higher probability of deal failure overseas than in domestic markets and strategically seek less equity ownership of target firms in cross-border deals. The autocracy level of target country moderates the M&A behaviors difference between SCEs and PCEs. Our analysis of 12,497 Chinese mergers and acquisitions supports the study hypotheses.

Suggested Citation

  • Sunny Li Sun & Young Jin Ko, 2023. "The Zone of Conformity: A Comparison of Private and State-Controlled Enterprises in M&As," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 247-284, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:manint:v:63:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s11575-023-00501-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11575-023-00501-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11575-023-00501-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11575-023-00501-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Helen Wei Hu & Lin Cui & Preet S Aulakh, 2019. "State capitalism and performance persistence of business group-affiliated firms: A comparative study of China and India," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(2), pages 193-222, March.
    2. Ren, Monica & Manning, Stephan & Vavilov, Stanislav, 2019. "Does state ownership really matter? The dynamic alignment of China's resource environment and firm internationalization strategies," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 1-1.
    3. Liang, Hao & Renneboog, Luc & Li Sun, Sunny, 2015. "The political determinants of executive compensation : Evidence from an emerging economy," Other publications TiSEM 9b8bdc5e-6425-47f5-91d7-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Witold J. Henisz, 2002. "The institutional environment for infrastructure investment," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(2), pages 355-389.
    5. Joyce C. Wang & Jingtao Yi & Xiuping Zhang & Mike W. Peng, 2022. "Pyramidal Ownership and SOE Innovation," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(7), pages 1839-1868, November.
    6. Jiatao Li & Peixin Li & Baolian Wang, 2019. "The liability of opaqueness: State ownership and the likelihood of deal completion in international acquisitions by Chinese firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 303-327, February.
    7. Yuping Zeng & Thomas J. Douglas & Changqi Wu, 2013. "The Seller's Perspective on Determinants of Acquisition Likelihood: Insights from China's Beer Industry," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(4), pages 673-698, June.
    8. Hao Liang & Bing Ren & Sunny Li Sun, 2015. "An anatomy of state control in the globalization of state-owned enterprises," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 46(2), pages 223-240, February.
    9. Jacobsen, Stacey, 2014. "The death of the deal: Are withdrawn acquisition deals informative of CEO quality?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 54-83.
    10. Liang, Hao & Renneboog, Luc & Sun, Sunny Li, 2015. "The political determinants of executive compensation: Evidence from an emerging economy," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 69-91.
    11. Jing Li & Jun Xia & Zhouyu Lin, 2017. "Cross-border acquisitions by state-owned firms: How do legitimacy concerns affect the completion and duration of their acquisitions?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(9), pages 1915-1934, September.
    12. Filip De Beule & Dieter Somers & Haiyan Zhang, 2018. "Who Follows Whom? A Location Study of Chinese Private and State-Owned Companies in the European Union," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 43-84, February.
    13. Mike W Peng & Denis Y L Wang & Yi Jiang, 2008. "An institution-based view of international business strategy: a focus on emerging economies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(5), pages 920-936, July.
    14. Olga Petricevic & David J Teece, 2019. "The structural reshaping of globalization: Implications for strategic sectors, profiting from innovation, and the multinational enterprise," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(9), pages 1487-1512, December.
    15. George O. White & Jean J. Boddewyn & Tazeeb Rajwani & Thomas A. Hemphill, 2018. "Regulator Vulnerabilities to Political Pressures and Political Tie Intensity: The Moderating Effects of Regulatory and Political Distance," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 58(5), pages 743-769, October.
    16. Yuanzhi Luo, 2005. "Do Insiders Learn from Outsiders? Evidence from Mergers and Acquisitions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(4), pages 1951-1982, August.
    17. Klaus E Meyer & Yuan Ding & Jing Li & Hua Zhang, 2014. "Overcoming distrust: How state-owned enterprises adapt their foreign entries to institutional pressures abroad," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 45(8), pages 1005-1028, October.
    18. Hyejun Kim & Jaeyong Song, 2017. "Filling institutional voids in emerging economies: The impact of capital market development and business groups on M&A deal abandonment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(3), pages 308-323, April.
    19. Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra & Andrew Inkpen & Aldo Musacchio & Kannan Ramaswamy, 2014. "Governments as owners: State-owned multinational companies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 45(8), pages 919-942, October.
    20. Desislava Dikova & Padma Rao Sahib & Arjen van Witteloostuijn, 2010. "Cross-border acquisition abandonment and completion: The effect of institutional differences and organizational learning in the international business service industry, 1981–2001," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(2), pages 223-245, February.
    21. Rodrigues, Suzana B. & Dieleman, Marleen, 2018. "The internationalization paradox: Untangling dependence in multinational state hybrids," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 39-51.
    22. Reuben Mondejar & Hongxin Zhao, 2013. "Antecedents to Government Relationship Building and the Institutional Contingencies in a Transition Economy," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 579-605, August.
    23. Lim, Mi-Hee & Lee, Ji-Hwan, 2016. "The effects of industry relatedness and takeover motives on cross-border acquisition completion," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 4787-4792.
    24. Walkling, Ralph A., 1985. "Predicting Tender Offer Success: A Logistic Analysis," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 461-478, December.
    25. Vikrant Shirodkar & Palitha Konara, 2017. "Institutional Distance and Foreign Subsidiary Performance in Emerging Markets: Moderating Effects of Ownership Strategy and Host-Country Experience," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 179-207, April.
    26. David L. Deephouse, 1999. "To be different, or to be the same? It’s a question (and theory) of strategic balance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 147-166, February.
    27. Zhang, Jianhong & He, Xinming, 2014. "Economic nationalism and foreign acquisition completion: The case of China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 212-227.
    28. C. N. V. Krishnan & Ronald W. Masulis, 2013. "Law Firm Expertise and Merger and Acquisition Outcomes," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(1), pages 189-226.
    29. Lin Cui & Fuming Jiang, 2012. "State ownership effect on firms' FDI ownership decisions under institutional pressure: a study of Chinese outward-investing firms," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 43(3), pages 264-284, April.
    30. Heather Berry & Mauro F Guillén & Nan Zhou, 2010. "An institutional approach to cross-national distance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(9), pages 1460-1480, December.
    31. Zhang, Jianhong & Zhou, Chaohong & Ebbers, Haico, 2011. "Completion of Chinese overseas acquisitions: Institutional perspectives and evidence," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 226-238, April.
    32. W. J. Henisz, 2000. "The Institutional Environment for Economic Growth," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 1-31, March.
    33. He, Xinming & Zhang, Jianhong, 2018. "Emerging market MNCs' cross-border acquisition completion: Institutional image and strategies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 139-150.
    34. Nan Zhou, 2018. "Hybrid State-Owned Enterprises and Internationalization: Evidence from Emerging Market Multinationals," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 605-631, August.
    35. Cosmina Lelia Voinea & Hans Kranenburg, 2018. "Feeling the Squeeze: Nonmarket Institutional Pressures and Firm Nonmarket Strategies," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 58(5), pages 705-741, October.
    36. Clegg, L. Jeremy & Voss, Hinrich & Tardios, Janja A., 2018. "The autocratic advantage: Internationalization of state-owned multinationals," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 668-681.
    37. Katrin Muehlfeld & Padma Rao Sahib & Arjen van Witteloostuijn, 2007. "Completion or Abandonment of Mergers and Acquisitions: Evidence from the Newspaper Industry, 1981-2000," Journal of Media Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 107-137.
    38. Hong Zhu & Qi Zhu, 2016. "Mergers and acquisitions by Chinese firms: A review and comparison with other mergers and acquisitions research in the leading journals," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 1107-1149, December.
    39. Murali DR Chari & Kiyoung Chang, 2009. "Determinants of the share of equity sought in cross-border acquisitions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 40(8), pages 1277-1297, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gnekpe, Christian & Jimenez, Alfredo, 2023. "Smoke signal: When firms' patent strategy and local patent protection system affect equity stakes in cross-border acquisitions," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(6).
    2. Huang, Dongdong & Tsui-Auch, Lai Si & Dieleman, Marleen & Gomulya, David, 2024. "Politically connected EMNCs in a (de)globalising world: A review and future research directions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(3).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xie, En & Reddy, K.S. & Liang, Jie, 2017. "Country-specific determinants of cross-border mergers and acquisitions: A comprehensive review and future research directions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 127-183.
    2. Cuervo-Cazurra, Alvaro & Li, Cheng, 2021. "State ownership and internationalization: The advantage and disadvantage of stateness," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(1).
    3. Andrei Panibratov & Daria Klishevich, 2023. "Emerging market state-owned multinationals: a review and implications for the state capitalism debate," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 84-117, February.
    4. Xie, En & Li, Fanshu & Wu, Zhan & Kumar, Vikas, 2024. "State ownership and Chinese private firms’ OFDI in developed economies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 59(3).
    5. Pei Sun & Jonathan P. Doh & Tazeeb Rajwani & Donald Siegel, 2021. "Navigating cross-border institutional complexity: A review and assessment of multinational nonmarket strategy research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(9), pages 1818-1853, December.
    6. Jing Li & Jun Xia & Zhouyu Lin, 2017. "Cross-border acquisitions by state-owned firms: How do legitimacy concerns affect the completion and duration of their acquisitions?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(9), pages 1915-1934, September.
    7. Buckley, Peter J & Cui, Lin & Chen, Liang & Li, Yi & Choi, Yoona, 2023. "Following their predecessors’ journey? A review of EMNE studies and avenues for interdisciplinary inquiry," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(2).
    8. Xu, Kai & Hitt, Michael A. & Brock, David & Pisano, Vincenzo & Huang, Lulu S.R., 2021. "Country institutional environments and international strategy: A review and analysis of the research," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1).
    9. He, Xinming & Zhang, Jianhong, 2018. "Emerging market MNCs' cross-border acquisition completion: Institutional image and strategies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 139-150.
    10. Zhang, Jianhong & van Witteloostuijn, Arjen & Zhou, Chaohong & Zhou, Shengyang, 2024. "Cross-border acquisition completion by emerging market MNEs revisited: Inductive evidence from a machine learning analysis," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 59(2).
    11. Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra & Anna Grosman & William L. Megginson, 2023. "A review of the internationalization of state-owned firms and sovereign wealth funds: Governments’ nonbusiness objectives and discreet power," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(1), pages 78-106, February.
    12. Yuanyuan Huang & Lu Shen & Chuang Zhang, 2022. "Home-country government support, the belt and road initiative, and the foreign performance of Chinese state-owned subsidiaries," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 1023-1049, September.
    13. Panicker, Vidya Sukumara & Upadhyayula, Rajesh Srinivas & Sivakumar, Sandeep, 2022. "Internationalization of hybrid state-owned enterprises from emerging markets: Institutional investors as enablers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 409-422.
    14. Kumar, Deepak & Sengupta, Keya & Bhattacharya, Mousumi, 2023. "Macroeconomic influences on M&A deal outcomes: An analysis of domestic and cross-border M&As in developed and emerging economies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    15. Jing Zhou & Yunwen Jiang & On Kit Tam & Wei Lan & Silin Ye, 2021. "Success in completing cross‐border acquisitions by emerging market firms: What matters?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(7), pages 2128-2163, July.
    16. Wang, Molin & Yan, Haifeng & Ciabuschi, Francesco & Su, Cong, 2023. "Facilitator or inhibitor? The effect of host-country intellectual property rights protection on China’s technology-driven acquisitions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(6).
    17. Jiang, Jiangang & Zhang, Jianhong, 2023. "Does political ideology matter in Chinese cross-border acquisitions?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    18. Shanshan Ouyang & Yanxi Li, 2019. "Confucius Institute and the Completion of Chinese Cross-Border Acquisitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-22, September.
    19. Gnekpe, Christian & Jimenez, Alfredo, 2023. "Smoke signal: When firms' patent strategy and local patent protection system affect equity stakes in cross-border acquisitions," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(6).
    20. Cheung, Zeerim & Aalto, Eero & Nevalainen, Pasi, 2020. "Institutional Logics and the Internationalization of a State-Owned Enterprise: Evaluation of International Venture Opportunities by Telecom Finland 1987–1998," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(6).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:manint:v:63:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s11575-023-00501-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.