Do Chinese firms benefit from government ownership following cross-border acquisitions?

•We seek to revisit and contextualize the OLI paradigm in conjunction with the institution-based view.•We study how long term firm performance after a cross-border acquisition (CBA) is associated with government ownership.•The empirical analysis covers 151 Chinese acquiring firms and 206 CBAs from 1999 to 2013.•The positive linkage between government ownership and post-CBA long term performance is moderated by boundary conditions.•We discuss our findings and explore theoretical and practical implications for both Chinese firms and other emerging economy firms.