Patent- and trademark-seeking outward foreign direct investment by Chinese firms: The role of business group affiliation

We examine the relationship between business group affiliation (BGA) of Chinese firms and their foreign acquisitive behavior in terms of technology and brand-oriented strategic assets. Drawing on new internalization, business group, and international business theory, we assert that Chinese business group affiliated firms will more likely pursue foreign acquisitions to seek strategic assets including patents but less likely to pursue foreign acquisitions to seek trademarks. Patents have non-location-bounded (NLB) properties that mean they can be exploited by the business group-not just the firm-back in the domestic market, while trademarks have location bounded (LB) properties that mean they are less easy to exploit by a business group domestically. Using a sample of 779 Chinese cross-border acquisitions between 2006 and 2015, we find support for arguments relating to the differences in relative attractiveness of targets holding patents vs. trademarks for Chinese firms linked to business groups. We discuss how this better helps us understand emerging market MNEs and related theory.