中文摘要：

管理层国际化是提升企业竞争力的重要手段。本文采用世界银行的＂中国企业调查＂数据研究了在华外方总经理对企业盈利能力的影响。我们发现,聘用外方总经理对企业盈利能力有显著的正效应,而这种效应在聘用非中国港澳台地区总经理的企业中则表现得更加突出。此外,我们还发现,企业面临的市场竞争环境越激烈,外方总经理对企业盈利能力的提升作用越明显;外方总经理对出口企业盈利能力的提升作用明显强于非出口企业。

英文摘要：

Foreign expatriate managers are playing more and more important roles in Chinese firms. Using the Chinese Enterprises Survey data conducted by the World Bank in 2003, we investigate foreign expatriate managers＇ role in knowledge transfer from for- eign countries to Chinese firms. We emphasize a few advantages that foreign expatriate managers have comparing with Chinese local managers： advanced management experiences, knowledge of global markets, familiarity of business rules in developed countries, and lower level of institutional embeddedness in China. We employ the Lerner index constructed by Roeger （1995） to estimate firm markup ratio and use return on equity to measure profitability ratio of firms. Our empirical results indicate that, after controlling for ＂self-selec- tion＂ of foreign expatriate managers into foreign invested firms or firms in more profitable industries, firms led by foreign expatriate managers are more profitable than firms led by local managers. Further analyses show that the positive effect of foreign expatriate managers on firm performance is strengthened for firms operating in more competitive industries and for firms exporting their prod- ucts to overseas markets. This study shows that foreign expatriate managers help Chinese firms to improve their performance through transferring management knowledge from developed economies to decrease production costs and increase product price of Chinese firms. The extent of knowledge transfer is even higher for firms facing more intensive competition This study provides evidences of and/or exploring foreign markets. knowledge transfer from foreign expatriate managers to Chinese firms and have important policy implications. In a globalized era, Chinese firms have to be partici- pating into the global economy more actively. In addition to be more actively participating in global trade and foreign direct investment, the globalization of goods and capital, Chinese firms should have more internationalized top management teams. Through intro