Abstract: Government support has been recognized as a main impetus behind the internationalization of emerging multinational enterprises ( hereafter EMNEs) , but conceptual views are inconclusive regarding government support's impacts on EMNEs， post-entry operations. This research explores whether and when home country government support enables EMNEs to obtain foreign partners’ trust in the host markets. To test hypotheses, this research constructed a dataset that comprises of primary survey data collected from senior Chinese managers working for Chinese multinational companies' overseas subsidiaries and archival data. The findings indicate that home country government support is conducive for EMNEs to obtaining their foreign partners' trust. The positive impact becomes stronger when EMNEs operate in host countries that have more advanced regulatory institutions. However, in host countries that have tight diplomatic relationship and intensive cultural communication with the home countries, the impact of home country government support becomes weaker. This research extends the research on the internationalization of EMNEs and uncovers how diplomatic relationship and cultural communication at the macro-level affect interorganizational relationship management at the micro-level.

Key words: government support , interorganizational trust , regulatory distance , diplomatic relationship , cultural communication