Export intensity of MNE overseas subsidiaries: Exploring the roles of parent firms' corporate policy of trade finance and subsidiary-level export knowledge

This study examines the relationships between the parent firm's corporate policy of trade finance, subsidiary-level export knowledge, and the export intensity of overseas subsidiaries, integrating insights from research on multinational enterprises, trade finance, and subsidiary exporting. We conceptualise corporate policy of trade finance as a centrally codified governance mechanism with resource-like properties, defined as formal and systematic guidelines on payment terms, credit evaluation, and risk mitigation in export operations. Subsidiary-level export knowledge refers to a locally embedded capability reflected in subsidiaries' ability to identify export information sources, assess export opportunities and risks, and understand foreign market conditions. Using hand-collected survey data on 135 subsidiaries of Western multinational enterprises operating in manufacturing and service sectors across six South-East Asian countries, supplemented with parent-firm and host-country archival data, we find a positive association between the parent firm's corporate policy of trade finance and subsidiary export intensity. Subsidiary-level export knowledge negatively moderates this association. These findings remain stable across alternative estimators and supplementary construct-level robustness analyses. This study contributes to the literature on subsidiary exporting by offering new insights into how parent-level trade finance policy and subsidiary-level export knowledge are jointly associated with export intensity, and it provides practical implications for parent firms, subsidiary managers, and policymakers.