The effects of corporate governance and institutional environments on export behaviour in emerging economies evidence from China

This paper examines the impact of corporate governance and institutional environments on the export behaviour of firms in emerging economies. We argue that the role of corporate governance should be analysed from both principal- agent and principal-principal perspectives. We hypothesise that institutional environments moderate the effects of corporate governance on export behaviour. Analysis of a sample of Chinese listed firms supports our argument that outside directors and CEO shareholding help firms make export decisions, while the effects of ownership concentration may be non-monotonic. Sample firms’ export propensity is higher the better the institutional environments of their locations. This positive effect of institutional environments comes both directly and from the moderating of the effects of corporate governance.