IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i5p1321-d210516.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does the Belt and Road Initiative Reduce the R&D Investment of OFDI Enterprises? Evidence from China’s A-Share Listed Companies

Author

Listed:
  • Yahui Chen

    (School of Economics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China)

  • Changsheng Xu

    (School of Economics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China)

  • Ming Yi

    (School of Economics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China)

Abstract

Existing studies on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) primarily explain its impact on foreign trade, foreign direct investment and economic development of the countries concerned, whereas its impact on the performance of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) enterprises has rarely been examined. By considering the BRI as exogenous policy shock, this paper analyzes the mechanism and impact of the BRI on the research and development (R&D) investment of China’s OFDI enterprises investing in countries along the Belt and Road. With propensity score matching and a difference-in-difference approach, it tackles the endogeneity problem caused by self-selecting into the BRI enterprise group. The estimates indicate that BRI has not effectively promoted the R&D investment of OFDI enterprises, but plays an inhibitory role in the short term, and the marginal effect increases firstly and then decreases. Further mechanism analysis shows that the BRI leads to the addition of overseas revenue and the reduction of return on assets, which are the main reasons for the decrease of the R&D investment. In addition, the ownership heterogeneity analysis finds a higher negative effect on the state-owned enterprises, while a smaller effect on non-state-owned enterprises.

Suggested Citation

  • Yahui Chen & Changsheng Xu & Ming Yi, 2019. "Does the Belt and Road Initiative Reduce the R&D Investment of OFDI Enterprises? Evidence from China’s A-Share Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-14, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:5:p:1321-:d:210516
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/5/1321/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/5/1321/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bee Yan Aw & Mark J. Roberts & Daniel Yi Xu, 2011. "R&D Investment, Exporting, and Productivity Dynamics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1312-1344, June.
    2. Piperopoulos, Panagiotis & Wu, Jie & Wang, Chengqi, 2018. "Outward FDI, location choices and innovation performance of emerging market enterprises," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 232-240.
    3. Cai, Xiqian & Lu, Yi & Wu, Mingqin & Yu, Linhui, 2016. "Does environmental regulation drive away inbound foreign direct investment? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 73-85.
    4. Lichtenberg, Frank R, 1988. "The Private R&D Investment Response to Federal Design and Technical Competitions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(3), pages 550-559, June.
    5. Wenjie Chen & Heiwai Tang, 2014. "The Dragon Is Flying West: Micro-level Evidence of Chinese Outward Direct Investment," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 31(2), pages 109-140, September.
    6. Titus O. Awokuse & Weishi Grace Gu, 2015. "Does Foreign Intellectual Property Rights Protection Affect Us Exports And Fdi?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3), pages 256-264, July.
    7. Li, Jian & Strange, Roger & Ning, Lutao & Sutherland, Dylan, 2016. "Outward foreign direct investment and domestic innovation performance: Evidence from China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 1010-1019.
    8. Du, Julan & Zhang, Yifei, 2018. "Does One Belt One Road initiative promote Chinese overseas direct investment?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 189-205.
    9. Neven, D. & Siotis, G., 1996. "Technology sourcing and FDI in the EC: An empirical evaluation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 543-560, July.
    10. Ye Jiao & Zhao Yunpeng & Cui Chuanjiang & Zhao Lu, 2018. "Effect of cultural distance on reverse technology spillover from outward FDI: a bane or a boon?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(10), pages 693-697, June.
    11. Jaya Prakash Pradhan & Neelam Singh, 2009. "Outward FDI and Knowledge Flows: A Study of the Indian Automotive Sector," Institutions and Economies (formerly known as International Journal of Institutions and Economies), Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, vol. 1(1), pages 156-187, June.
    12. Peter J Buckley & L Jeremy Clegg & Adam R Cross & Xin Liu & Hinrich Voss & Ping Zheng, 2007. "The determinants of Chinese outward foreign direct investment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(4), pages 499-518, July.
    13. Haiyue Liu & Jie Jiang & Lei Zhang & Xiaolan Chen, 2018. "OFDI Agglomeration and Chinese Firm Location Decisions under the “Belt and Road” Initiative," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-22, November.
    14. Philippe Aghion & Nick Bloom & Richard Blundell & Rachel Griffith & Peter Howitt, 2005. "Competition and Innovation: an Inverted-U Relationship," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 120(2), pages 701-728.
    15. Smarzynska Javorcik, Beata, 2004. "The composition of foreign direct investment and protection of intellectual property rights: Evidence from transition economies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 39-62, February.
    16. Peter J. Buckley & Adam R. Cross & Hui Tan & Liu Xin & Hinrich Voss, 2008. "Historic and Emergent Trends in Chinese Outward Direct Investment," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 715-748, December.
    17. Branstetter, Lee, 2006. "Is foreign direct investment a channel of knowledge spillovers? Evidence from Japan's FDI in the United States," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 325-344, March.
    18. Chen, Victor Zitian & Li, Jing & Shapiro, Daniel M., 2012. "International reverse spillover effects on parent firms: Evidences from emerging-market MNEs in developed markets," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 204-218.
    19. Cozza, C. & Rabellotti, R. & Sanfilippo, M., 2015. "The impact of outward FDI on the performance of Chinese firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 42-57.
    20. Lili Kang & Fei Peng & Yu Zhu & An Pan, 2018. "Harmony in Diversity: Can the One Belt One Road Initiative Promote China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-28, September.
    21. Randall Morck & Bernard Yeung & Minyuan Zhao, 2008. "Perspectives on China's outward foreign direct investment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(3), pages 337-350, April.
    22. Kojima, Kiyoshi, 1978. "Giant Multinational Corporations : Merits and Defects," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 18(2), pages 1-17, February.
    23. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra E. Todd, 1997. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 64(4), pages 605-654.
    24. Lai, Yung-Lung & Lin, Feng-Jyh & Lin, Yi-Hsin, 2015. "Factors affecting firm's R&D investment decisions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 840-844.
    25. Yadong Luo & Rosalie L Tung, 2007. "International expansion of emerging market enterprises: A springboard perspective," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(4), pages 481-498, July.
    26. Brown, James R. & Martinsson, Gustav & Petersen, Bruce C., 2017. "What promotes R&D? Comparative evidence from around the world," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 447-462.
    27. Egger, Hartmut & Egger, Peter & Greenaway, David, 2008. "The trade structure effects of endogenous regional trade agreements," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 278-298, March.
    28. Lee, Gwanghoon, 2006. "The effectiveness of international knowledge spillover channels," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(8), pages 2075-2088, November.
    29. Zhaobin Fan & Ruohan Zhang & Xiaotong Liu & Lin Pan, 2016. "China’s outward FDI efficiency along the Belt and Road," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 8(3), pages 455-479, September.
    30. George Cornel Dumitrescu, 2015. "Central and Eastern European Countries Focus on the Silk Road Economic Belt," Global Economic Observer, "Nicolae Titulescu" University of Bucharest, Faculty of Economic Sciences;Institute for World Economy of the Romanian Academy, vol. 3(1), pages 186-197, May.
    31. Huang, Yiping, 2016. "Understanding China's Belt & Road Initiative: Motivation, framework and assessment," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 314-321.
    32. Haddad, Mona & Harrison, Ann, 1993. "Are there positive spillovers from direct foreign investment? : Evidence from panel data for Morocco," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 51-74, October.
    33. WANG, James Jixian & YAU, Selina, 2018. "Case studies on transport infrastructure projects in belt and road initiative: An actor network theory perspective," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 213-223.
    34. Huang, Shu-Chin, 2013. "Capital outflow and R&D investment in the parent firm," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 245-260.
    35. Awokuse, Titus O. & Yin, Hong, 2010. "Intellectual property rights protection and the surge in FDI in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 217-224, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jin-Young Jung & Wei Wang & Sung-Woo Cho, 2020. "The Role of Confucius Institutes and One Belt, One Road Initiatives on the Values of Cross-Border M&A: Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Yu, Zhen & Xiao, Yao & Li, Jinpo, 2021. "How does geopolitical uncertainty affect Chinese overseas investment in the energy sector? Evidence from the South China Sea Dispute," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. Cai, Guowei & Zhang, Xuejiao & Yang, Hao, 2023. "Capacity utilization shifting or resource-seeking? Benefits for Chinese enterprises participating in the belt and road initiative," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cai, Guowei & Zhang, Xuejiao & Yang, Hao, 2023. "Capacity utilization shifting or resource-seeking? Benefits for Chinese enterprises participating in the belt and road initiative," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    2. Li, Linjie & Liu, Xiaming & Yuan, Dong & Yu, Miaojie, 2017. "Does outward FDI generate higher productivity for emerging economy MNEs? – Micro-level evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 839-854.
    3. Cui, Lin & Gao, Qiuling & Guo, Jinyu & Ma, Pengcheng, 2022. "OFDI performance of EMNEs: A review and recommendations for future research," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(3).
    4. Hongping Du & Liliana Mitkova & Na Wang, 2020. "The Paths of Internationalization of Chinese Innovative Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-27, March.
    5. Cozza, C. & Rabellotti, R. & Sanfilippo, M., 2015. "The impact of outward FDI on the performance of Chinese firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 42-57.
    6. Ruilin Yang & Harald Bathelt, 2022. "China's outward investment activity: Ambiguous findings in the literature and empirical trends in greenfield investments," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 313-341, March.
    7. Li, Lei & Luo, Changtuo, 2023. "Does administrative decentralization promote outward foreign direct investment and productivity? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    8. Hong Fang & Bo Peng & Xu Wang & Siran Fang, 2019. "The Effect of Intellectual Property Rights Protection in Host Economies on The Sustainable Development of China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment—Evidence from a Cross-Country Sample," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-14, April.
    9. Liao, Hongwei & Yang, Liangping & Dai, Shuanping & Van Assche, Ari, 2021. "Outward FDI, industrial structure upgrading and domestic employment: empirical evidence from the Chinese economy and the belt and road initiative," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    10. Xing Shi & Yujie Zeng & Yanrui Wu & Shuai Wang, 2023. "Outward Foreign Direct Investment and Green Innovation in Chinese Multinational Companies," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 23-05, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    11. Yang, Zhenbing & Chen, Zhuo & Shi, Qi & Yan, Bing, 2021. "Does outward foreign direct investment increase debt ratio? Firm-level evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-12.
    12. Sutherland, Dylan & Anderson, John & Hu, Zheyuan, 2020. "A comparative analysis of location and non-location-bounded strategic asset seeking in emerging and developed market MNEs: An application of new internalization theory," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2).
    13. Lili Kang & Fei Peng & Yu Zhu & An Pan, 2018. "Harmony in Diversity: Can the One Belt One Road Initiative Promote China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-28, September.
    14. Clegg, Jeremy & Lin, Hsin Mei & Voss, Hinrich & Yen, I-Fan & Shih, Yi Tien, 2016. "The OFDI patterns and firm performance of Chinese firms: The moderating effects of multinationality strategy and external factors," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 971-985.
    15. Howell, Anthony & Lin, Jia & Worack, Stephan, 2020. "Going out to innovate more at home: Impacts of outward direct investments on Chinese firms' domestic innovation performance," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    16. Lee, Eun Su & Liu, Wei & Yang, Jing Yu, 2023. "Neither developed nor emerging: Dual paths for outward FDI and home country innovation in emerged market MNCs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(2).
    17. Chen, Lili & Guo, Shaoyu & Lu, Jian & Gerschewski, Stephan, 2021. "Outward FDI and efficiency in within-firm resource allocation – Evidence from firm-level data of China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    18. Florian Becker-Ritterspach & Maria L. Allen & Knut Lange & Matthew M. C. Allen, . "Home-country measures to support outward foreign direct investment: variation and consequences," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    19. Yoo, Dasun & Reimann, Felix, 2017. "Internationalization of Developing Country Firms into Developed Countries: The Role of Host Country Knowledge-Based Assets and IPR Protection in FDI Location Choice," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 242-254.
    20. Kong, Qunxi & Guo, Rui & Wang, Yang & Sui, Xiuping & Zhou, Shimin, 2020. "Home-country environment and firms’ outward foreign direct investment decision: Evidence from Chinese firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 390-399.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:5:p:1321-:d:210516. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.