Ownership Structure, Expatriate Policy, and Regionalization: Evidence from Taiwan’s Family Business Groups, 2000‐2002

Based on the panel data analysis of Taiwan’s family business groups from 2000 to 2002, this research attempts to investigate the relationships among the types of ownership structure, particularistic ties, and the engagements in regional markets from a social capital perspective. The result indicates that a family business group’s use of particularistic ties is contingent on its relative centralization in decision‐making. Consequently, the family business group’s use of particularistic ties in subsidiaries significantly influences its engagements in regional markets. This study highlights the possible role of particularistic ties as a kind of firm‐specific advantage existing within family business groups when expanding internationally. Furthermore, it indicates that the indigenous particularistic ties intrinsic to Great China societies have implications for multinational companies in the context of this region.