IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0308290.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

International operations and corporate R&D investment: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Ying Fu
  • Jiaying Li
  • Ying Wu

Abstract

This paper presents an examination of the relationship between international operations and corporate R&D investment. Using a large sample of Chinese listed firms for the 2009–2022 period and the ordinary least squares method, we find that international operations have a positive effect on corporate R&D investment. The finding remains valid after a battery of robustness tests. Mechanism tests show that international operations increase corporate R&D investment by diversifying product demand instead of increasing firms’ international knowledge acquisition. This paper provides new evidence on the role of international operations in innovation activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Ying Fu & Jiaying Li & Ying Wu, 2024. "International operations and corporate R&D investment: Evidence from China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(9), pages 1-15, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0308290
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0308290
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0308290
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0308290&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0308290?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ghauri, Pervez & Strange, Roger & Cooke, Fang Lee, 2021. "Research on international business: The new realities," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2).
    2. Bai, Tao & Liesch, Peter, 2022. "Organizational goals and resource allocation to overseas foreign direct investment," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(3).
    3. Ilgaz Arikan & Oded Shenkar, 2022. "Neglected elements: What we should cover more of in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(7), pages 1484-1507, September.
    4. 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.
    5. Xueli Huang & Ying Zhu, 2016. "Managing Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-39460-6, May.
    6. Fu, Xiaolan & Hou, Jun & Liu, Xiaohui, 2018. "Unpacking the Relationship between Outward Direct Investment and Innovation Performance: Evidence from Chinese firms," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 111-123.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Li, Lei & Luo, Changtuo, 2023. "Does administrative decentralization promote outward foreign direct investment and productivity? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    2. 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).
    3. Lee, In Hyeock (Ian) & Hong, Eunsuk & Shin, Jong Kook, 2023. "Multinational enterprises, intra-regional cross-border M&As, and performance: Location advantages of market versus knowledge," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(6).
    4. Fu, Xiaolan & Sun, Zhongjuan & Ghauri, Pervez N., 2018. "Reverse knowledge acquisition in emerging market MNEs: The experiences of Huawei and ZTE," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 202-215.
    5. Ascani, Andrea & Nair, Lakshmi Balachandran & Iammarino, Simona, 2023. "Racing to the bottom or seeking legitimacy? National environmental performance and the location strategies of Chinese MNEs," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(2).
    6. Iiris Saittakari & Tiina Ritvala & Rebecca Piekkari & Perttu Kähäri & Sami Moisio & Tomas Hanell & Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, 2023. "A review of location, politics, and the multinational corporation: Bringing political geography into international business," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(6), pages 969-995, August.
    7. 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).
    8. Becker-Ritterspach, Florian A.A. & Lange, Knut S.G. & Allen, Matthew M.C., 2022. "Dominant modes of economic coordination and varieties of firm internationalization support," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(3).
    9. Aluko, Bukola & Garri, Myropi & Owalla, Beldina & Kim, Jae-Yeon & Pickernell, David, 2024. "Informal institutions’ influence on FDI flows: A configurational fsQCA analysis of corruption as part of the MNEs’ FDI motivation system," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(6).
    10. Akhtaruzzaman, Muhammad & Berg, Nathan & Lien, Donald, 2017. "Confucius Institutes and FDI flows from China to Africa," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 241-252.
    11. Alessia Amighini & Claudio Cozza & Roberta Rabellotti & Marco Sanfilippo, 2014. "Investigating Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investments: How Can Firm-level Data Help?," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 22(6), pages 44-63, November.
    12. 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.
    13. Hu, Helen Wei & Cui, Lin, 2014. "Outward foreign direct investment of publicly listed firms from China: A corporate governance perspective," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 750-760.
    14. Yuan Cheng & Xiaofang Chen & Changbo Lin & Sheqing Ma & Jie Feng, 2024. "Examining Sustainable Overseas Investment Information-Sharing Model for Automobile Enterprises: A Multi-Modal Weight Network Approach," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(4), pages 17705-17725, December.
    15. Conti, Claudio Ramos & Parente, Ronaldo & de Vasconcelos, Flávio C., 2016. "When distance does not matter: Implications for Latin American multinationals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 1980-1992.
    16. Sosa Andrés, Maximiliano & Nunnenkamp, Peter & Busse, Matthias, 2013. "What drives FDI from non-traditional sources? A comparative analysis of the determinants of bilateral FDI flows," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 7, pages 1-53.
    17. Cozza, Claudio & Rabellotti, Roberta & Sanfilippo, Marco, 2014. "The impact of outward FDI on the performance of Chinese multinationals," BOFIT Discussion Papers 24/2014, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    18. Federico Carril-Caccia & Juliette Milgram-Baleix & Jordi Paniagua, 2019. "Foreign Direct Investment in oil-abundant countries: The role of institutions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-23, April.
    19. 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.
    20. Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd & Slangen, Arjen & Maseland, Robbert & Onrust, Marjolijn, 2014. "The impact of home–host cultural distance on foreign affiliate sales: The moderating role of cultural variation within host countries," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(8), pages 1638-1646.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:plo:pone00:0308290. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.