所有制性质、制度环境与企业跨区域市场进入战略选择

Firm Ownership Status, Institutional Environment, and the Choice of Cross-regional Market Entry Strategies: The Case of Chinese Real Estate Industry

转轨经济中企业所有制性质与外部制度环境差异对企业战略选择有着至关重要的作用,本文结合资源依赖理论和制度理论,探讨不同所有制性质的房地产企业在跨区域发展战略和市场进入模式选择上的差异,并进一步考察区域制度环境对这种差异的影响作用。研究表明,民营房地产企业发生跨区域经营的概率显著高于国有房地产企业;国有房地产企业倾向于选择对目标市场经营活动较高控制程度的跨区域市场进入模式,而民营房地产企业则倾向于选择对目标市场经营活动较低控制程度的跨区域市场进入模式;当房地产企业进入制度相对完善的区域时,尽管民营企业相比国有企业仍然更倾向于选择低控制市场进入模式,但是两类所有制企业的市场进入模式选择差异显著缩小。

In transitional economies, firms＇ strategic decisions are substantially inf luenced by the ownership status and the external institutional environment. Built upon resource dependence theory and institutional theory, this article investigates into the issue of how ownership status and sub-national institutions affect firms＇ decisions on market entry strategies and the choice of cross-regional market entry modes. The empirical findings based on the data of real estate industry in China suggest that privately-owned enterprises are more likely than state-owned enterprises to choose cross-regional market entry strategies and low-control market entry modes, but the difference is less evident in regions with relatively high market orientation. This paper complements the existing theories by showing that ownership status affects the preference towards cross-regional expansion and towards different levels of control over operation in host markets. Firms with different ownership status have different resource endowments and constraints. State-owned enterprises have tighter relationship with local governments in home markets and easier access to favorable financing, thus weaker motivation to pursue cross-regional expansions than that of privately-owned enter prises. In contrast, privately-owned enterprises have to overcome the disadvantage by cross-regional expansion and low-control cooperation with the parties in host markets.We also present fresh evidence on the interaction between ownership status and institutional factors in affecting the choice of cross-regional market entry modes. Institutional environment could change the constraints under which an enterprise makes a decision. When entering a less developed market environment, since the gap of resource endowment between privately-owned enterprises and state-owned enterprises in the host market becomes more substantial, privately-owned enterprises may rely more on external resources at the expense of operation control to alleviate uncertainties and government discretions. To the contrary, when entering a more developed market environment, privately-owned enterprises are more able to increase their control on operation, although they are still at a disadvantageous position against that of state-owned enterprises. The phenomena observed in the study call for constant improvement of institutional environment to facilitate privately-owned enterprises to alleviate resource constraints when competing with state-owned enterprises.