본 연구에서는 한국에서 활동하는 291개의 외국인 다국적기업 자회사들의 재무적 경영성과를 자산수익률(return on assets, ROA)로서 측정하고, 자회사 CEO의 국적(한국인 대 외국인)이 그러한 성과에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 그 결과 자회사 CEO가 현지인이 아니라 모회사에서 파견한 외국인인 경우에, 자회사의 재무적 성과가 저하된다는 증거가 발견되었다. 그러한 경향은 특히 자회사가 한국에서 사업한 기간이 짧은 경우와 모국-피투자국 간 문화적 거리가 큰 경우 에 현저하게 나타났다. 그러나 모회사 규모에 따라서 CEO 국적과 자회사 성과 간의 관계가 변화한다는 증거는 발견되지 않았다. 이러한 결과는 외국인 CEO들이 일반적으로 우리나라에서 기업을 경영하는데 많은 어려움을 겪고 있으며, 그러 한 어려움은 자회사의 현지 사업경험이 부족하거나 문화적으로 많은 차이가 존재하는 경우에 더욱 크다는 것을 시사한다.
With the sample of 291 foreign affiliates operating in Korea, we examined the relationship between CEO nationality and subsidiary performance. A CEO with home-country nationality can communicate better with the HQ managers, and well understand the parent company’s strategy and management style. However, he/she is not familiar with the local culture and business practices of the host country, and does not have strong emotional attachment to the local subsidiary. On the other hand, a CEO with host-country nationality can customize the company’s products and services better to accommodate local customers’ needs and demands, and can manage labor forces more effectively in accordance with local labor practices and work ethics. However, he/she may have difficulty communicating with the parent company, due to his/her unfamiliarity with its strategy and management style and lack of social knowledge shared with HQ managers. In general, however, we expect foreign managers to suffer substantially from the liability of foreignness in Korea, because the local government frequently intervenes in the economy and the Korean market is controlled by strong and large domestic companies and business groups. Furthermore, the IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook suggests that the legal system in Korean significantly discriminates foreign companies. Thus, we first proposed a hypothesis that the appointment of a subsidiary CEO with home-country nationality would have a negative effect on its performance (H1). Then, we introduced three additional hypotheses on the moderating effects of three situational factors on the relationship between CEO nationality and subsidiary performance; the impact of CEO nationality on subsidiary performance would be weaker, when the subsidiary has gained more experience with the host country (H2), when the cultural distance between the home and host countries is smaller (H3), and when the subsidiary is larger in size (H4). We tested H1 by using the multivariate regression technique. The dependent variable was the subsidiary’s ROA, and the independent variable was the nationality of the subsidiary CEO. Then, for H2, H3, and H4, we conducted the moderating regression analysis on the interaction effects between CEO nationality and situational factors (subsidiary experience, cultural distance, and subsidiary size) on subsidiary performance. The results suggest that the appointment of a CEO subsidiary with home-country nationality is negatively associated with subsidiary performance. This tendency is more salient when the subsidiary has operated in Korea for a short period of time, and the cultural distance between the home and the host countries is large. Therefore, our analysis provides supporting evidence for H1, H2, and H3. However the H4, which examines the interaction effect between CEO nationality and subsidiary size, is not supported. These findings suggest that foreign CEOs experience considerable difficulties in managing their businesses in Korea, and such difficulties are more acute, when their companies lack sufficient experience in the local business environment, and face significant cultural differences in Korea. We also find that the length of a subsidiary’s operation has a significant positive effect on subsidiary performance, whereas the tenure of a subsidiary CEO has no similar effect. The implication is that the experience at the subsidiary level is far more important than the experience at the manager level in overcoming the liability of foreignness in the host country. In sum, our analysis finds evidence that many foreign managers in Korea suffer from liabilities of foreignness due to the lack of local experience (at the subsidiary level) and cultural differences. Thus, MNCs would need to provide enough training and education when they appoint a home-country national as CEO of their subsidiary in Korea. Also, the Korean government would need to improve transparency in the national economic system, to help foreign managers overcome their disadvantages in doing business in Korea.