This study examines the entry and exit of multinational enterprises (MNEs) across regions in China. It analyses the strategic entry and exit of MNEs in 31 Chinese provinces during the period 2001–07. The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) reveals multiple regional competitiveness profiles, as configurations of economic and institutional conditions, which are associated with a large scale of MNE entries and/or exits. It is found that while MNEs tend to exit regions with deficiencies in economic conditions, they are attracted to regions with favourable economic conditions and low state intervention, which also results in heightened market competition leading to the restructuring of foreign investors.

Strategic ambidexterity has been under researched in the context of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI). An ambidextrous FDI, balancing between exploratory and exploitive activities, is strategically desirable but managerially challenging. We examine the role of top management team (TMT) functional diversity in influencing Chinese firms’ degree of FDI ambidexterity, and its boundary conditions in relation to the informal and formal institutional environments within which the TMT operates. Based on a panel of Chinese outward-investing manufacturing firms, our empirical analyses show that a marginal positive effect of TMT functional diversity on a firm's FDI ambidexterity is strengthened by the social faultline presence in the firm's TMT, but is weakened by the development of formal institutions in the firm's external environment.