Research On The Promotion Effect Of The R&D On ODI Of China's Listed Manufacturing Enterprises

In the past decade,especially after the global financial crisis in 2008,China's outward direct investment(ODI)has developed rapidly.According to the "Statistical Bulletin of China's Outward Direct Investment",the net outward direct investment(hereinafter referred to as "flow")in 2009 was 56.53 billion dollars.In 2017,China's outward direct investment flow was 158.29 billion dollars,with an average annual growth rate of 22%.At the same time,we have noticed that China's scientific and technological activities(R&D)investment has also shown a rapid growth trend in recent years.On the other hand,outward direct investment has important practical significance for China's industrial transformation and upgrading,then what factors will promote outward direct investment.We find that enterprise technology absorption capacity and production efficiency are important factors affecting overseas investment decisions,and enterprise R&D will affect the company's technology absorption capacity and production efficiency,which leads to the core issue discussed in this paper---whether Chinese enterprises' R&D and the growth of innovation capacity are important determinants of their overseas investment.To do this,it is necessary to study the relationship between enterprise R&D and its outward direct investment decisions and the internal mechanism.In the existing literatures,the research on the maturity theory of outward direct investment motivation mainly focuses on the developed countries such as the United Kingdom,the United States and Japan,and there are few studies on the motivation of outward direct investment in developing countries.In recent years,the rapid growth of Chinese outward direct investment in both quantity and amount has caused domestic and foreign scholars to pay attention to China's outward direct investment.Therefore,research on the motivation of China's outward direct investment has become more and more abundant.The past research literatures on the motivation of China's outward direct investment analyzed the motivation of China's outward direct investment from the perspectives of seeking resources,strategic assets or the policy drive of the host country.There are few studies on the outward direct investment behavior of Chinese enterprises from the perspective of R&D.This paper analyzes the motivation of Chinese manufacturing enterprises' outward direct investment from the perspective of R&D,and discusses whether corporate R&D affects its decision on outward direct investment and the mechanism through which R&D affects its outward direct investment decision.This paper provides a way to better understand the outward direct investment behavior of Chinese manufacturing companies.Specifically,first of all,this paper sorts out the related literature on the theory of outward direct investment motivation,the research on the impact of R&D expenditure on productivity,the research on the relationship between productivity and outward direct investment,and the research on the reverse technology spillover effects of ODI and R&D.Three hypotheses are proposed: first,corporate R&D affects its outward direct investment decisions;second,corporate R&D affects its outward direct investment decisions through productivity improvements;third,corporate R&D influences its outward direct investment decisions through increasing technology absorption capacity.Secondly,based on the three hypotheses,three basic models are constructed to test the hypothesis.Then,this paper selects the data of China's listed manufacturing companies from 2009 to 2013,and uses the R&D investment dummy and R&D investment(the proportion of R&D investment in operating income)as a proxy variable for measuring R&D,and controls the productivity of enterprises(TFP).Traditional factors such as per capita capital(kl)and enterprise ownership affect outward direct investment,and examine the impact of corporate R&D(rdrya&rdr)on its outward direct investment decisions.The empirical results show that enterprise R&D has a positive impact on its outward direct investment decision.On the one hand,R&D companies are more likely to participate in ODI than those without R&D;on the other hand,the more companies invest in R&D,the greater the possibility of participating in outward direct investment.The empirical results of the mechanism test show that enterprises increase their R&D for increasing the possibility of their participation in ODI by increasing productivity;enterprises increase their R&D for increasing the possibility of their participation in ODI by improving their technological absorptive capacity.Finally,we selected the listed manufacturing companies with continuous R&D from the whole sample to form a sub-sample and carried out the same regression as the whole sample.The obtained empirical results are basically consistent with the empirical results of the whole sample.Finally,this paper summarizes and gives relevant policies and suggestions to the behavior of Chinese manufacturing enterprises' outward direct investment from the two perspectives of enterprises and governments.For enterprises,they should play the role of enterprises and increase investment in R&D.For the government,on the one hand,it should expand support for enterprise R&D;on the other hand,market-oriented,it should promote the reform of state-owned enterprises.