Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-97).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 239-254).

Thesis (M.A.)--Zhongguo wen hua xue yuan. / Reproduced from typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-73).

Thesis (M.A.)--Zhongguo wen hua xue yuan. / Cover title. Reproduced from typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. [175-187]).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-88). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Economics, December 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1981.

Thesis (M.U.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-75).

 Based on the institution-based view, this thesis investigates the effects of subnational institutional environments within a host country on foreign direct investment decisionsand the performance of foreign affiliates. Subnational institutional environments refer to the rules of the game of a society in a subnational region, shaping the manners of individual and organizational activities in the region. I focus on two aspects ofsubnational institutional environments, the level of subnational institutional development and legitimating actors’ cognition of wholly owned foreign subsidiaries in a subnational region, and then develop three studies examining the influences of subnational institutional environments on the entry mode choices of multinational corporations (MNCs), the performance of foreign affiliates, and the subsequent expansions of foreign affiliates. The first study proposes that the levels of subnational economic, political and social institutional development have positive effects on MNCs to take wholly owned subsidiaries (WOSs) at the time of entry, while the high level of acceptance in legitimating actors’ cognition of wholly owned foreign subsidiaries also encourages MNCs to choose WOSs as the entry modes. The influences of the two aspects of subnational institutional environments on the entry mode choices of MNCs vary in degree. The second study examines the independent and relative influences of the levels of subnational economic, political and social institutional development on the level of and variation in foreign affiliate performance. The third study hypothesizes that the subsequent expansions of foreign affiliates within a subnational region are contingent onboth the levels of subnational economic, political and social institutional development and the affiliates’ relative performance to their aspiration levels. The poor performance feedback stimulates a foreign affiliate to take advantage of high levels of subnational political and social institutional development for changing the current situation via expanding the operational size within a subnational region. Drawing from the foreign-invested firms positing in different subnational regions of a large institutional transition economy, China, I test hypothesized relationships based on a measurement of subnational institutional development that captures economic, political and social institutional conditions of subnational regions within the country. This thesis provides implications for both theoretical development and management practices. / published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis includes two chapters investigating issues related to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In the first chapter, I exploit one of the most important conflicts of the 20th century between what are currently the world's second and third largest economies, the Japanese invasion of China from 1937 to 1945, to investigate the long-run impact of conflicts among countries on cross-border trade and investment. I find that Japanese multinationals are less likely to invest in Chinese regions that suffered greater civilian casualties during the Japanese invasion, and these regions also trade less with Japan. This study shows that historical animosity still matters for international trade and investment, despite the trend toward a flat world. In the second chapter, by using an extensive data set on foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) in the Chinese mainland, I employ discrete choice model developed by McFadden (1974) to examine the factors determining the locational choices of FDI. Our empirical analysis shows that FIEs from source countries that are more remote institutionally from the Chinese mainland exhibit a higher degree of sensitivity toward regional economic institutions in their choice of FDI location. Interestingly, we also detect a pattern of asymmetric sensitivity toward institutional quality, i.e., FIEs coming from countries with better institutions than China are more sensitive to institutional difference and there is no effect of institutional difference on FIEs from countries with worse institutions than China. Institutional distance could also cast differentiated impacts on location choice by Joint Ventures (JVs) and Wholly-owned Enterprises (WOEs), FIEs coming from the source countries with high proportion of ethnic Chinese and FIEs coming from source countries with low proportion of ethnic Chinese in their overall populations. / published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy