The Internationalization of State-Owned Enterprises : An Analysis of cross-border M&As

Using a database of more than 100,000 M&As, we study the internationalization of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the 21st century, and the underlying firm-level and country-level drivers. Meaningful differences are found - compared to private enterprises and across various types of SOEs as well - along many dimensions, including the time trend, the geographical-sectoral coverage, and firms' proprietary structure. Majority-owned SOEs are more focused on domestic markets, while State-Invested Enterprises and government-backed financial institutions are more internationalized. SOEs' internationalization has been less affected by the Great Financial Crisis, it is less sensitive to geographical and cultural proximity, it involves countries with a lower institutional quality and which are more peripheral in the world trade network