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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in producer services in China using both country aggregate and provincial sub-sectoral data. Design/methodology/approach: This paper applies autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration and panel data regression approaches in examining the determinants of Producer Service FDI (PSFDI). Findings: Our results show differences between the determinants of aggregate FDI and PSFDI. Contrary to the typical influencing factors of general FDI (that include GDP, openness, low wages and environmental quality), the two main determinants of PSFDI inflows to China are found to be high wages and research inputs (specifically the number of research workers as a proxy for research intensity). Data drawn from 26 Chinese provinces disaggregated at sub-sector level of producer services corroborate the results. Originality/value: We add to existing literature by identifying the key determinants of inward PSFDI in China also via a provincial-level data analysis and disaggregation at sub-sectoral level of producer services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The paper aims to investigate outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), aiming to unveil whether the Chinese OFDI policy acted as a country-specific advantage (CSA) that has been turned by Chinese firms, particularly SOEs, into a firm-specific advantage (FSA).Design/methodology/approach Using a data set spanning 18 years (1996-2013) on international mergers and acquisitions (IM&As) by Chinese companies (SOEs and private-owned enterprises – POEs) and drawing on extant literature, the paper systematically compares the behavior of Chinese SOEs and POEs, aiming to identify differences in their behavioral patterns that indicate that SOEs have benefitted more from policy-induced advantages than their private counterparts.Findings Among other aspects, significant differences were found regarding the behavior of SOEs vis-à-vis POEs that seem to show that SOEs had greater support from public entities, leading them to close larger deals and purchase more companies/stakes in cash; acquire firms with greater debt (implying higher interest payments); and purchase smaller stakes than POEs (indicating that there are other objectives than control). This lends support to the assumption that Chinese SOEs are “sitting on piles of cash”, and that the availability of capital acted as a CSA that has been transformed into an FSA by the companies involved, notably by SOEs.Research limitations/implications The comprehensive and large-scale data set used includes wholly owned SOEs, leaving out of this research partially owned SOEs. The findings of this paper have implications for the discussion on competitive neutrality and for the academic, managerial and public policy debate.Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the only study, to date, that shows systematic differences in financing patterns of OFDI (notably via IM&As) by Chinese SOEs and POEs, among other behavioral characteristics of both types of companies when conducting FDI abroad, linking that to CSAs and FSAs induced by CSAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Based on a sample of foreign-financed manufacturing firms in southern China, the purpose of this paper is to study the effects of ISO certification on productivity. Design/methodology/approach - The paper employs the stochastic frontier approach to estimate frontier efficiency scores at firm level. Findings - The empirical results suggest that the implementation of ISO was able to improve firms' productivity in the form of a wholly disembodied shift of the production frontier. The results further show that there was a mildly positive embodied shift of the production frontier due to the effects of ISO on the marginal product of labor. However, the embodied effects of ISO on the marginal product of capital were not significant. Research limitations/implications - The sample size is small and the data were collected from southern China. A generalization of results to other parts of China should be interpreted with caution. Despite the limited degree of generalization, firms with ISO certifications are suggested to be aware of certain flexibility in the implementation of the ISO documented procedures. Practical implications - The findings of the paper should be of general interest to firms seeking or adopting ISO system or other international standards. Originality/value - The originality of the paper resides in the fact that the empirical work investigates the embodied effects of ISO certification on the marginal product of labor and capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]