文化距离损害了外资企业绩效吗

Does Cultural Distance Hurt the Performance of Foreign-funded Enterprises in China?

本文从国家文化与企业创新关系的角度,分析了文化距离对外资企业绩效的影响,探讨了文化距离对外资企业绩效的作用机制。与学术界普遍认为文化距离对跨国公司海外子公司的绩效产生负面影响的观点不同,本文在解决了文化距离可能产生的内生性问题之后,发现文化距离越大,外资企业绩效越好。原因是我国高权力距离文化对外方低权力距离文化、我国集体主义文化对外方的个体主义文化产生了“反向共鸣”效应,而不是“相似吸引”效应,使得权力距离和个体主义差异促进了外资企业绩效提升。文化距离提高外资企业绩效的内在机制为:文化距离促进了外资企业创新,创新提升了产品差异化水平,有利于市场竞争,进而提高了绩效。文化距离对绩效的积极影响受到进入方式的调节作用,相对于独资企业,合资企业的绩效随着文化距离的增加在下降。本研究为外资企业和我国“走出去”企业处理文化距离不利因素、利用文化距离带来的优势提供了理论依据和现实参考。

This paper analyzes the influence of cultural distance on the performance of foreign-funded enterprises from the perspective of the relationship between national culture and enterprise innovation,and discusses the working mechanism for the cultural distance to affect the performance of foreign-funded enterprises.The cultural distance is generally believed to have a negative impact on the performance of multinationals overseas subsidiaries.After solving the endogenous problems that may arise from cultural differences,this paper uses the foreign-funded enterprises data and finds:(1)The greater the cultural distance,the better the performance of foreign-funded enterprises.It s mainly because the high power distance and collectivism of China have a“reverse resonance”rather than the“similarity attraction”effect on the low power distance and individualism of foreign-funded enterprises,so the cultural distance can promote corporate performance.The working mechanism is that the cultural distance is conducive to enterprise innovation which in turn makes the products more differentiated and competitive in the market,thereby improving corporate performance.(2)The positive impact of cultural distance on performance is moderated by the way of market entry.Compared with sole proprietorships,the performance of joint ventures declines as the cultural distance increases.This study provides a theoretical basis and a realistic reference for both foreign-funded enterprises and Chinese companies seeking global expansion to deal with the pros and cons of cultural distance.