Returnee Talent and Corporate Investment: Evidence from China

Abstract

We manually collected a dataset comprising the overseas experiences of management teams of listed Chinese firms and investigated the effects of returnee talent on firm investment efficiency (InvEff). The results show that (1) returnees improve InvEff significantly, especially for firms that experience overinvestment; (2) the central-government-controlled state-owned enterprises benefit the most from overseas returnees; and (3) foreign experience in countries with effective governance and low corruption levels have significantly marginal effects on the improvement in InvEff. This study highlights a new channel of international knowledge spillover and practically guides the introduction of talent policy in emerging markets.