Descriptive statistics of variables.

Multinational enterprises frequently divest their foreign assets in the current economic environment. Existing research, based on friction theory, has mainly focused on the impacts of political and economic disparities on foreign divestment while neglecting the nuanced influence of cultural factors. To address this gap, this paper draws on the cultural friction perspective to capture the diverse cultural resistance faced by each enterprise and explore the relationship between cultural friction and foreign divestment. Data from Chinese publicly listed enterprises engaged in foreign investment are leveraged, and a dual-level analysis is conducted using Logit panel regression and Cox survival analysis to examine the relationship between cultural friction and foreign divestment from both the viewpoints of the parent company and the overseas subsidiary. Additionally, the paper examines the marginal factors that affect the relationship between them from an institutional perspective. The findings reveal that cultural friction has a positive influence on the propensity of multinational enterprises to divest from foreign markets. Interestingly, a "formal institutional distance paradox" is demonstrated in our study, and politically connected enterprises are found to be more vulnerable to foreign divestment due to the "curse of political affiliations".

在当前经济环境下，跨国企业（Multinational Enterprises）频频剥离其海外资产。既有研究基于摩擦理论（Friction Theory），主要聚焦于政治与经济差距对海外撤资的影响，却忽视了文化因素的细微差异化影响。为填补这一研究空白，本文借助文化摩擦视角，捕捉各企业所面临的多元文化阻力，探究文化摩擦与海外撤资之间的关联。本文选取从事对外投资的中国上市企业数据，并采用双层次分析框架，结合Logit面板回归（Logit Panel Regression）与Cox生存分析（Cox Survival Analysis），从母公司与海外子公司双视角检验文化摩擦与海外撤资的关联。此外，本文从制度视角出发，考察了影响二者关系的边际因素。研究结果表明，文化摩擦对跨国企业剥离海外市场的倾向具有正向影响。值得注意的是，本研究揭示了“正式制度距离悖论”，同时发现具有政治关联的企业更容易遭遇海外撤资，这源于“政治依附诅咒”效应。