The Impact Of Enterprise’ Outward Fdi On Innovation Performance

With the improvement of competitiveness in the international market,China is not only able to attract foreign countries’ funds to enter the country,but also become a new Outward foreign direct investment country.Against the backdrop of a 23% decline in global foreign direct investment(FDI)flows in 2017,China’s total Outward foreign direct investment in the whole year of 2018 was US$129.83 billion,up 4.2% year-on-year.Among them,direct investment in foreign finance was US$9.33 billion,a year-on-year increase of more than doubled to 105.1%.According to statistics,as of the end of 2017,China’s 25,500 domestic investors set up a total of 39,200 Outward foreign direct investment enterprises outside the country(region),distributed in 189 countries(regions),with a coverage rate of 81.1%.Under the context of the large-scale “going out” of Chinese companies,this thesis addresses the following issues.First,can corporate Outward foreign direct investment bring about an increase in corporate innovation performance? Second,how does corporate Outward foreign direct investment promote the improvement of corporate innovation performance? Third,what are the scenarios for multinational companies to transfer knowledge? The answer to the above questions is not only an urgent issue for the academic,but also a problem that the Chinese government and enterprises must consider when developing the "going out" strategy.To this end,the thesis firstly analyzes the theoretical mechanism from the previous research results and case enterprise data,and then uses the micro-data obtained from the questionnaire,combined with the structural equation model and multiple linear regression analysis to test the hypothesis and research the above issues.Specifically,it includes the following three aspects: First,can corporate Outward foreign direct investment bring about an increase in corporate innovation performance?In the existing research,China has been discussed as a research object around “foreign direct investment”.Among them,there are few studies on the impact of Outward foreign direct investment on innovation performance,and these research results can be divided into two categories.Some of them discussed the impact of “direct investment” on innovation performance from the micro level.Some scholars also discussed the “threshold effect” of the reverse spillover mechanism from the macro level.This is because the research on the impact of Outward foreign direct investment on innovation performance has not yet reached a unified conclusion.Therefore,scholars try to start from environmental factors,and believe that environmental factors affect the absorption capacity of enterprises,thus affecting the ability to innovate.Some scholars based on the new trade theory,from the heterogeneity within the enterprise,consider the influence of different ways of entering the host country and different productivity on the innovation performance of multinational corporations.The thesis argues that the heterogeneity of the Outward foreign direct investment strategy is also the reason why the research does not reach a consensus conclusion.Therefore,different from the previous consideration of “whether” for Outward foreign direct investment,the thesis starts from the depth of Outward foreign direct investment,the breadth of Outward foreign direct investment and the speed of Outward foreign direct investment,and considers the impact of heterogeneous Outward foreign direct investment strategy on innovation performance.Second,how does corporate Outward foreign direct investment promote the improvement of corporate innovation performance? In the existing research,almost all of them directly analyze the direct impact of reverse technology spillovers generated by Outward foreign direct investment behavior on innovation performance,and the black box of the mechanism of action has not been fully opened.Although tacit knowledge is considered to be a unique competitive advantage of enterprises,it is often difficult to express and often transfer with explicit knowledge.Therefore,scholars usually do not carry out tacit knowledge and explicit in related research on management of multinational corporations.The mechanism of action is differentiated.In fact,the transmission of tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge are different,and the mechanisms that influence the relationship between variables(Outward foreign direct investment and innovation performance)are also different.In addition,the Sino-US trade war has gone beyond the scope of trade in many aspects.The United States regards China as a strategic opponent and imposes stricter restrictions on China in high-end products and technologies.Under such a realistic background,it is increasingly difficult to directly transfer the dominant knowledge of high-tech patents and new products from the host country back to the domestic ones.At this time,the important role of tacit knowledge is further highlighted.Under the premise of the dual background of theory and reality,thesis regards tacit knowledge as an independent variable that is different from explicit knowledge.By studying the relationship between foreign direct investment and innovation performance,verify how tacit knowledge is generated and functioning between the two,focusing on revealing the mechanism by which tacit knowledge plays a role between the two.Third,what are the scenarios for multinational companies to transfer knowledge? Research on the influencing factors of knowledge transfer in multinational corporations has been richer,and the factors affecting knowledge transfer are mainly concentrated in three aspects: Factors of the parent company itself and the subsidiaries themselves,such as the motivation of the parent company to make Outward foreign direct investment,and the ability to absorb and transform;The interconnection between the parent company and the subsidiary company,such as the network relationship between the parent company and the subsidiary company;The characteristics of knowledge itself,such as knowledge diversity,knowledge consistency,etc.In addition,the geographical distance,cultural distance and institutional distance between the home country of the multinational company and the host country will also affect internal knowledge transfer.Although the existing research is already rich,there is still room for deep exploration.Starting from the organizational context and network relationship of the enterprise,thesis considers the organic structure of the organizational structure and the embeddedness of the network relationship of the home country as the adjustment variables,and discusses the influencing factors of the role of Outward foreign direct investment in tacit knowledge from the perspective of “one push and one pull”.Specifically,based on the existing literature,thesis reviews the research results of the three variables of Outward foreign direct investment,tacit knowledge and innovation performance,finds the shortcomings in the research,and constructs the research model of the thesis.Through the method of case study,the initial proposition is put forward,and the questionnaire survey method is used to collect the questionnaire data of Chinese enterprises for foreign direct investment.Through the discussion of the test results,the corresponding opinions and suggestions are obtained.The main conclusions and contributions of the thesis include the following three points:1.Outward Foreign direct investment of enterprises has a positive impact on the innovation performance of enterprises.Different from previous studies,the research on the impact of “direct investment” on innovation performance is different from the previous literature.It is different from the previous literature focusing on Outward foreign direct investment(greenfield investment,mergers and acquisitions or establishment of R&D centers).The impact of different Outward foreign direct investment strategies on innovation performance is considered in three aspects: the breadth of foreign direct investment and the speed of foreign direct investment.The results show that the depth of foreign direct investment,the breadth of Outward foreign direct investment have a significant impact on innovation performance.The thesis considers the strategic dimension of foreign direct investment,enriches the study of dimensions in previous research,and expands the theoretical boundary of the impact of Outward foreign direct investment on innovation performance.2.The depth of foreign direct investment,the breadth of Outward foreign direct investment and the speed of foreign direct investment have a partial impact on tacit knowledge,and tacit knowledge affects innovation performance.Tacit knowledge plays a part in mediating between Outward direct investment and innovation performance.This conclusion verifies the process and mechanism of the theory of " Outward direct foreign investment-tacit knowledge-innovation performance".Enterprises can obtain tacit knowledge from overseas markets through Outward foreign direct investment.As a latecomer to the overseas market,China is likely to form a disadvantage of latecomers in the face of fierce competition,and tacit knowledge can alleviate the disadvantages caused by the lack of overseas business experience,so that enterprises can quickly integrate into the host country market.Through the tacit knowledge acquired and accumulated by OFDI,companies can not only acquire skills and skills,but also have a keen insight into new trends and new technologies,and then guide companies to make decisions that are beneficial to innovation.The thesis introduces tacit knowledge as a mediator variable to introduce the relationship model between Outward foreign direct investment and innovation enterprise performance,systematically explores the role of tacit knowledge as a mediator variable,and helps to further open the black box of the mechanism of Outward foreign direct investment of multinational corporations on innovation performance.3.The paper also considers the two regulatory variables of organizational structure organicity and home network embedding.The organic structure of the organizational structure and the embeddedness of the network relationship of the home country play a regulatory role in the relationship between the Outward foreign direct investment and the tacit knowledge of the enterprise.The organic organizational structure and the embedded relationship of the home country network enable the enterprises that make Outward foreign direct investment to quickly adapt to the overseas turbulent environment,educe uncertainty,increase the acquisition of tacit knowledge,and enable companies to overcome the rigidity of superior resources and form new competitive advantages.Based on the previous research,the thesis considers the influencing factors of the organizational context and the network relationship of the home country that have not yet attracted attention,use the organizational structure organicity and home country network relationship embeddedness as parallel regulatory variables to supplement and enrich the relevant research on influencing factorsThe research in the thesis expands the theoretical boundary of Outward foreign direct investment affecting the innovation performance of enterprises,and emphasizes that enterprises engaged in Outward foreign direct investment should better establish the initiative and awareness of external tacit knowledge acquisition,cultivate and enhance the conditions for enterprises to obtain tacit knowledge from Outward foreign direct investment,and finally realize the progress of enterprise innovation ability.