Location choice of cross-border mergers and acquisitions of port and shipping service enterprises in China: characteristics, process and influencing factors

Location choice of cross-border mergers and acquisitions of port and shipping service enterprises in China: characteristics, process and influencing factors | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Location choice of cross-border mergers and acquisitions of port and shipping service enterprises in China: characteristics, process and influencing factors Ziran Jiang, Yijie Chen This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5818310/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is one of the main ways for multinational enterprises to access international capital, explore international markets, and participate in global operations. Based on defining the connotation of port and shipping service enterprises (PSSEs), this paper takes the cross-border M&As of PSSEs in China as a research case, and uses spatial analysis technology and conditional Logit model to study the spatial distribution characteristics and main driving factors of the 202 cross-border M&As of PSSEs from 1993 to 2021. Research results are as follows: (1) Cross-border M&As of PSSEs in China are generally divided into four stages: the proximity layout before 2000, the localized agglomeration in 2001–2008, the diffusion distribution in 2009–2016, and the steady expansion from 2017 to the present. (2) The cross-border M&As shows a northeast-southwest direction, and its center of gravity shows a clear trend of moving westward. (3) Overall, the cross-border M&As exhibits an agglomeration trend. From 2001 to 2008, there was no significant correlation. From 2009 to 2016, a negative correlation was observed, while a positive correlation appeared after 2017. These patterns align with the timeline of major national strategies. (4) Among the driving factors affecting the location choice of cross-border M&As, market size of the host country, economic freedom, shipping scale, liner transportation connectivity and institutional distance present a positive impact, while road network density, informatization level and proportion of high-tech product exports present a significant negative impact, and the impact of geographical distance is not significant. port and shipping service enterprises Cross-border mergers and acquisitions Spatial distribution Location choice Conditional Logit model Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Relevantdataandgraphs.zip Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5818310","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":405184644,"identity":"3f1ccfda-3742-4c28-8afa-84d186a71b40","order_by":0,"name":"Ziran Jiang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAArklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACxgYG9h8fKmxADOK1MEjOOJNGghYQkOZtO0yCcub+sw8MeNvO2zPP7jFg+LmDKIcdN0iQOHebmXHOGQPG3jPEaGlsYzhgUHabjXFGjgEzYxsxWprZGBsS2M7xkKCljY2Z4UDbAQkStPSwAa05k2zAOCOt4GAvMVoM+4+xMf+psLM3nJG88cFPorQ0IDEOEKGBgUEegzEKRsEoGAWjAB0AALlLMwOSQaPUAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Zhejiang Normal University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ziran","middleName":"","lastName":"Jiang","suffix":""},{"id":405184645,"identity":"3a3fb472-73dc-4375-9d96-556c69040566","order_by":1,"name":"Yijie Chen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Zhejiang Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yijie","middleName":"","lastName":"Chen","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-01-13 08:53:32","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5818310/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5818310/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":85951745,"identity":"eb201330-fb27-47d9-865d-c87b55f20ed4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-07-03 14:02:09","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":876468,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"1.21LocationchoiceofcrossbordermergersandacquisitionsofportandshippingserviceenterprisesinChina.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5818310/v1_covered_c86aa293-fc27-4cdd-ba8d-69f9545dae1b.pdf"},{"id":74553154,"identity":"2020c8d1-ba1d-46b7-9473-e0919028fd4f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-01-23 11:11:29","extension":"zip","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":29196091,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Relevantdataandgraphs.zip","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5818310/v1/6a3c03ef997af2e8bcbc4d30.zip"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Location choice of cross-border mergers and acquisitions of port and shipping service enterprises in China: characteristics, process and influencing factors","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"port and shipping service enterprises, Cross-border mergers and acquisitions, Spatial distribution, Location choice, Conditional Logit model","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5818310/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5818310/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eCross-border mergers and acquisitions (M\u0026amp;A) is one of the main ways for multinational enterprises to access international capital, explore international markets, and participate in global operations. Based on defining the connotation of port and shipping service enterprises (PSSEs), this paper takes the cross-border M\u0026amp;As of PSSEs in China as a research case, and uses spatial analysis technology and conditional Logit model to study the spatial distribution characteristics and main driving factors of the 202 cross-border M\u0026amp;As of PSSEs from 1993 to 2021. Research results are as follows: (1) Cross-border M\u0026amp;As of PSSEs in China are generally divided into four stages: the proximity layout before 2000, the localized agglomeration in 2001\u0026ndash;2008, the diffusion distribution in 2009\u0026ndash;2016, and the steady expansion from 2017 to the present. (2) The cross-border M\u0026amp;As shows a northeast-southwest direction, and its center of gravity shows a clear trend of moving westward. (3) Overall, the cross-border M\u0026amp;As exhibits an agglomeration trend. From 2001 to 2008, there was no significant correlation. 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