Summary:
Foreign capital can enter the market of a host country through two main channels: greenfield investment and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. As the choice of foreign capital entry mode is one of the core decisions made by multinational corporations when they enter the market of a host country, it is not only directly related to the success or failure of the enterprise's own transnational operation, but also has a significant impact on the economy of the host country. Financial systems are the core of modern economies. Whether a host country can use a sound financial system to attract foreign investment, which can lead to the diffusion of cutting-edge technology and the promotion of the host's global value chain, has become a topic of interest in academic circles. At the same time, the host country's business environment, including current and expected policies and the institutional and behavioral environment, not only directly affects the returns and risks of transnational investment, but also indirectly affects the returns of foreign direct investment by affecting the allocation efficiency of financial resources under the condition of incomplete contracts (Antras and Helpman, 2004). A few studies have discussed the relationship between financial development and foreign investment entry, but very few have examined how the different business environments of different countries affect the relationship between financial structure and the choice of foreign investment entry mode. Following Levine (2002), we construct a cross-country index of financial structures and then investigate the influence of different financial structures on foreign investment mode selection. We consider how the choice of financial structure affects the mechanism of foreign investment, and comprehensively investigate the relationship between the business environment and the choice of foreign investment mode. Our findings suggests that to promote financial supply side structural reform, China should improve its business environment and improve the quality of foreign capital introduction. The study uses transnational panel data on 65 countries from 2003 to 2017. The data are mainly from the databases of international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank. This study draws the following conclusions. First, compared to a bank-dominated financial structure, a market-oriented financial structure makes it easier for foreign investment to enter through cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and the promotional effect of such a financial market is clearly stronger in developed countries than in developing countries. Second, the analysis of the transmission mechanism finds that technological innovation and national risk control are the important channels through which financial structure influences the choice of foreign capital entry mode; more generally, we find that the choice of financial structure is more strongly associated with economic risk, and has limited association with political risk. Third, improving the business environment not only directly promotes the entry of foreign capital, it also indirectly regulates the role of the financial market in improving the structure optimization of foreign capital entry. The role of the business environment is significantly greater in developed countries than in developing countries. The findings of this study have clear policy implications. First, China should continue to extend the structural reform of its financial supply side by effectively promoting financial marketization, liberalization, and internationalization and reducing the entry and operation costs of foreign enterprises. Furthermore, China needs to adjust its policies for attracting foreign investment by improving the system for managing the pre-establishment of national treatment and negative list for foreign investment. It should consider policies that promote greenfield investment and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, which would improve the structure and quality of foreign investment. Second, the Chinese government should further strengthen technological innovation and guard against national risks. Its innovation incentive policies should promote the transformation from “quantity” to “quality,” enhance the ability of financial services to support the real economy, and adopt an innovation performance evaluation system that realizes the flexible nature of scientific research. Furthermore, in the context of increasing global economic uncertainty, China needs to improve its financial risk prevention mechanisms so that it can effectively control and defuse the systemic and non-systemic risks faced by domestic and foreign enterprises. Finally, China's investment policies should be committed to improving the business environment, following the principle of competitive neutrality for domestic and foreign firms, establishing and perfecting a foreign investment promotion mechanism, and creating a stable, transparent, predictable, and fair competitive market.
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