科研管理 ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (5): 122-130.

• 论文 • 上一篇    下一篇

中国企业对外直接投资的创新效应研究——基于研发投入和研发产出的视角

贾妮莎1,韩永辉2,3,雷宏振1   

  1. 1.陕西师范大学国际商学院,陕西 西安710119;
    2.广东外语外贸大学广东国际战略研究院,广东 广州510420;
    3.广东外语外贸大学国际经济贸易研究中心,广东 广州510420
  • 收稿日期:2018-03-28 修回日期:2018-08-18 出版日期:2020-05-20 发布日期:2020-05-21
  • 通讯作者: 韩永辉
  • 基金资助:
    国家自然科学基金项目:“文化距离影响中国海外直接投资企业创新的理论机制及实证研究”(71904113,2020.01-2022.12);教育部人文社科基金项目:“文化冲突对海外直接投资企业技术创新的微观研究:机理研究与实证分析”(19YJC790045,2019.01-2021.12); 中国科协高端科技创新智库青年项目:“双向直接投资下中国与沿线国家产业结构联动升级研究”(DXB-2KQN-2016-37,2016.09-2019.09)。

A research on the innovation effect of China′s outward foreign direct investment

Jia Nisha1, Han Yonghui2,3, Lei Hongzhen1   

  1. 1. International Business School, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi′an 710119, Shaanxi, China; 
    2. GRIIS, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou 510420, Guangdong, China; 
    3. ICETS, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou 510420, Guangdong, China
  • Received:2018-03-28 Revised:2018-08-18 Online:2020-05-20 Published:2020-05-21

摘要: 本文利用马氏距离匹配法对2005-2007年522家有对外直接投资的制造业企业匹配可供比较的对照组,设定研发投入和研发产出两个指标,刻画对外直接投资影响母国企业技术创新的知识吸收机制和知识再创造机制,从多维度研究对外直接投资的母国企业技术创新效应。研究发现:中国企业对外直接投资有效促进了母国企业研发投入,但没有促进母国研发产出的增加;异质性投资动机和异质性东道国对研发投入和研发产出的影响存在差异:技术寻求型投资显著促进了母国企业研发投入和研发产出,而资源寻求型投资对母国研发投入和研发产出则有一定抑制作用;投向发达国家的投资显著促进了母国的研发投入,而投向发展中国家的投资则促进了母国的研发产出。

关键词: 对外直接投资, 企业技术创新, 异质性投资动机

Abstract: Innovation is an important means for enterprises to obtain core competitiveness and excess profits. Accelerating the improvement of enterprise innovation capabilities is conducive to China′s transformation from a "manufacturing power" to a "manufacturing power". With the deepening of economic globalization and the advancement of the “Belt and Road” and “Going Global” strategies, Chinese enterprises have widely participated in international division of labor and transnational cooperation. In 2016, the number of foreign direct investment companies in China reached 7961 throughout the year, distributed in 164 countries and regions around the world. OFDI flow reached 170.11 billion US dollars, which is 63 times that in 2002, achieving an average annual growth of 34.4% for 14 consecutive years. At the same time, the characteristics of international cooperation of Chinese enterprise innovation is becoming more and more obvious. So it is necessary to deeply study the impact mechanism and effect of foreign direct investment, an important way for enterprises to participate in international division of labor, on enterprise innovation. This will provide micro-level empirical evidence and theoretical support for China′s current foreign direct investment policy.
The innovation of this paper is that we examine the mechanism of the effect of OFDI on the innovation effect of the home country based on heterogeneous investment motivation and heterogeneous host countries. This paper selects the comprehensive data set of manufacturing industry from the combination of the database of Chinese industrial enterprises and the directory of overseas invested enterprises (Institutions) as samples, and uses R&D input and R&D output to measure the two mechanism processes of enterprise innovation, to empirically test the home country innovation effect of enterprise FDI. Compared with the existing literature, the possible contributions of this paper include three aspects. First, this article attempts to analyze the internal mechanism of the OFDI innovation effect from a micro perspective, which enriches the related research on enterprise innovation. Second, a research paradigm of innovation decomposition process for R&D investment and R&D output is proposed. The existing research on the impact of OFDI on home country innovation is mostly based on a separate perspective. Innovation is the entire process of production, application and commercialization of technology. It not only refers to the preliminary basic research preparation, but also covers the commercialization of later research and development results. We can fully understand the home country innovation effect of OFDI only by analyzing the effect of OFDI on R&D investment and R&D output. Third, this paper selects a sample of Chinese manufacturing companies for empirical testing. As China is the largest foreign direct investment country among developing countries, its overseas investment has a clear investment motivation, which is helpful to a deeper understanding of innovation under heterogeneous investment motivation.
For answer the question of whether Chinese outward foreign direct investment promote technological innovation of home country, this paper sets two indicators for R&D investment and R&D output to characterize the impact of foreign direct investment on the technology of home country enterprises. At the same time, this paper explores the knowledge absorption mechanism and knowledge re-creation mechanism of foreign direct investment affecting the technological innovation of home country enterprises, and studies the technological innovation effects of foreign direct investment home country enterprises from multiple dimensions. The results of our examination present some evidences. First, in terms of the total sample, China′s outward foreign direct investment promote the R&D investment effectively, but do not promote the increase of R&D output. Second, the sub-sample test shows that there is a difference in the impact of heterogeneous investment motivation OFDI on R&D investment and R&D output. Technology-seeking investment significantly promotes home country enterprises′ R&D investment and R&D output, while resource-seeking investment has a certain inhibitory effect on home country R&D investment. OFDI of comprehensive production has no obvious promotion effect on R&D investment and R&D output; OFDI of business and trade has a significant promotion effect on R&D investment in the home country, but the promotion effect of this type OFDI on home country R&D output is not obvious. Third, OFDI in heterogeneous host countries has different effects on R&D investment and R&D output: investment in developed countries significantly promotes home country R&D investment; while investment in developing countries promotes home country R&D output.
This paper comprehensively evaluates the impact of OFDI on home country enterprise innovation, and concludes that OFDI has been quite effective since the implementation of China′s "Go Global" strategy. OFDI generally promotes R&D investment of enterprises, but it does not promote R&D output of enterprises, which shows that Chinese enterprises′ R&D efficiency is seriously low, which is not enough to quickly transforming R&D investment into R&D output. Therefore, while further encouraging enterprises to "go global", the government should strive to improve the efficiency of R&D in order to undertake foreign advanced technology. Therefore, while further encouraging enterprises to "go global", the government should strive to improve the efficiency of R&D in order to undertake foreign advanced technology. At the same time, it is noted that there are differences in the impact of OFDI with different investment motivations and with different host countries on the innovation of home country enterprises. To get more technology spillovers from "going global", on the one hand, government need to implement different incentives for different motivation investment. On the other hand, the government should actively encourage and guide more qualified enterprises to invest in developed countries or regions to obtain the most advanced technology and knowledge spillovers. And low-end industries in the value chain should be encouraged to transfer from home countries to other developing countries. In this way, it can not only obtain profits and reduce costs, but also release resources to undertake technologies closer to its own capabilities to promote innovation and development.

Key words: outward foreign direct investment, technological innovation, heterogeneous investment motivation