{"title":"International knowledge transfers and capital structure of multinational affiliates: Evidence from expatriate managers as the transfer agents","authors":"Youngho Kang , Ryoonhee Kim , Unjung Whang","doi":"10.1016/j.mulfin.2023.100801","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>This study investigates how knowledge transfers within multinational corporations affect the financing decisions of foreign affiliates using a unique dataset on Korean multinationals and their foreign affiliates’ employment structure. We document that affiliates with more expatriate managers tend to maintain lower financial leverage, suggesting that the greater number of expatriate managers facilitate knowledge transfer and increase risk of affiliates. We further show that the negative relation between expatriate managers on affiliate leverage is more pronounced when parents or affiliates own greater intangible assets and host countries have fewer knowledge assets in place. The </span>instrumental variable estimation also confirms the negative relation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47268,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Multinational Financial Management","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Multinational Financial Management","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1042444X23000208","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
This study investigates how knowledge transfers within multinational corporations affect the financing decisions of foreign affiliates using a unique dataset on Korean multinationals and their foreign affiliates’ employment structure. We document that affiliates with more expatriate managers tend to maintain lower financial leverage, suggesting that the greater number of expatriate managers facilitate knowledge transfer and increase risk of affiliates. We further show that the negative relation between expatriate managers on affiliate leverage is more pronounced when parents or affiliates own greater intangible assets and host countries have fewer knowledge assets in place. The instrumental variable estimation also confirms the negative relation.
期刊介绍:
International trade, financing and investments have grown at an extremely rapid pace in recent years, and the operations of corporations have become increasingly multinationalized. Corporate executives buying and selling goods and services, and making financing and investment decisions across national boundaries, have developed policies and procedures for managing cash flows denominated in foreign currencies. These policies and procedures, and the related managerial actions of executives, change as new relevant information becomes available. The purpose of the Journal of Multinational Financial Management is to publish rigorous, original articles dealing with the management of the multinational enterprise. Theoretical, conceptual, and empirical papers providing meaningful insights into the subject areas will be considered. The following topic areas, although not exhaustive, are representative of the coverage in this Journal. • Foreign exchange risk management • International capital budgeting • Forecasting exchange rates • Foreign direct investment • Hedging strategies • Cost of capital • Managing transaction exposure • Political risk assessment • International working capital management • International financial planning • International tax management • International diversification • Transfer pricing strategies • International liability management • International mergers.