외국인투자자가 수출기업의 성과 및 기업가치에 미치는 영향

The Role of Foreign Investors on Export Performance and Firm Value

Purpose This paper investigates whether foreign investors affect export performance and firm value. Sample firms fall into three groups: Large Enterprises (LEs), Middle-standing Enterprises (MEs), and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SEs). This is because large and small firms differ in the extent of information asymmetry and other characteristics. Design/Methodology/Approach We constructed panel data for exporting firms listed on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index market. We used a fixed effects model and a dynamic panel generalized method of moments estimator to mitigate potential endogeneity in the relation between foreign ownership and export performance (or firm value). Findings First, while foreign ownership is positively related to the export ratio for LEs, there are no statistically significant results for MEs and SEs. The results suggest that foreign investors contribute to export performance in LEs, which are more transparent, instead of SEs, which are more likely to suffer from asymmetric information. Second, LEs with a high export ratio show a positive relationship between foreign ownership and firm value, whereas SEs with a high export ratio do not. Our results remain robust even after controlling endogeneity concerns regarding the relation between foreign ownership and export performance as well as between foreign ownership and firm value. Research Implications Taken together, our results suggest that foreign investors of LEs encourage exports requiring that a company take on greater risk and thus contribute to firm value, providing long-term capital. In contrast, foreign investors of SEs might pursue short-term profits, ignoring improvements in export performance or firm value.