Korea Trade Review (무역학회지)

Korea Trade Research Association (한국무역학회)
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Empirical Analysis of the Changes in the Patterns of Chinese Firms' Outward Foreign Direct Investment in the Belt and Road Initiative Countries

중국 기업의 일대일로 국가에 대한 해외직접투자 패턴 변화에 관한 실증연구

  • Wonchan Ra (GBT Division/ Dept. of International Business, Graduate School, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies) ;
  • Zu-Kweon Kim (School of Management, Konkuk University)
  • 나원찬 (한국외국어대학교 GBT 학부/ 대학원 국제경영학과) ;
  • 김주권 (건국대학교 경영학과)
  • Received : 2022.12.11
  • Accepted : 2022.12.30
  • Published : 2022.12.30
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Abstract

In recent years, the outward foreign direct investment (oFDI) in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by Chinese companies has significantly increased in size and changed in content. However, changes in the oFDI patterns between the pre- and post-BRI periods have not received sufficient attention from academia despite their theoretical and strategic significance. This paper reviewed existing research to establish seven hypotheses on changes in the oFDI patterns of Chinese companies investing in BRI countries and conducted empirical analyses to test the hypotheses using secondary data. The results showed that after the BRI agreement, Chinese oFDI in BRI countries was more active in less economically and less institutionally developed countries, that the oFDI by privately-owned enterprises (POEs) increased more than that of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and that SOEs were more active in the social overhead capital (SOC) area while POEs were more active in the non-SOC area. The paper concludes with a summary, implications, and future research directions.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund of 2022.

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