Abstract: The relationship between political connections and enterprises internationalization has always been the focus of the academic circle and business world. Based on the institutional theory, taking the international mergers and acquisitions (M&A) events completed by listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A share markets from 2004 to 2014 as samples, this paper conducts a systematical analysis of the impact of political connections on international M&A performance of Chinese enterprises, and at the same time examines the moderating effects of the host country experience and organizational slack of enterprises on the relationship between political connections and international M&A performance. The empirical results show that there is a significant negative correlation between political connections and the international M&A performance of Chinese enterprises. Host country experience of Chinese enterprises can weaken this negative effect; while the moderating effect of organizational slack has not been verified.

Key words: political connections; international mergers and acquisitions (M&A) performance; organizational stigma; liability of foreignness