Despite the rise of interest in emerging market multinationals (EMNEs), the question of whether outward foreign direct investment (FDI) influences their resource acquisition in home countries remains underexplored. Contrary to the prior literature, which contends that EMNEs build outbound linkage through outward FDI so as to leverage outbound resources, this paper, however, focuses on whether outbound linkage influences their inbound resource leverage from home countries as well. Drawing on signaling theory, we propose that outbound linkage to developed countries, developing countries, and tax havens via outward FDI may reflect EMNEs’ different quality and prospects, which in turn influence their inbound leverage of government, financial, and market resources, respectively. Using panel data of 581 Chinese listed firms during the period 2002–2012, we largely verified our hypotheses, thus extending the boundary of the consequences of outward FDI on EMNEs in the signaling theory perspective.

企业国际多元化与绩效的关系是国际商务研究的一个核心问题。 然而，针对中国企业的相关研究主要以大型企业为主，中小民营企业尚未得到足够重视。 本文通过对中小民营企业的分析，发现国际多元化与企业绩效呈倒 S 型曲线关系，并据此提出了两个重要的权变因素:企业的风险规避行为和独特的内向国际化经验。 本文完善了现有研究并提供了新的理论观点。 最后本文做了针对性讨论。