مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

The impact of multinational corporations (MNCs) on world economy has drawn significant attention in academic circles (Wang et al., 2008). According to the 2015 World Investment Report, MNCs’ international production expanded generating value added of approximately $7.9 trillion in 2014, and outward FDI(OFDI) stock as a percentage of GDP in 2014 was 33.7%. The sales assets of MNCs’ foreign affiliates grew faster than that of their domestic counterparts and it reached $36.35 trillion in 2014, which is almost half of the global GDP. This phenomenon has prompted worldwide researchers’ attention to investigate OFDI.

Decision making with regard to OFDI and location are both strategic issues for multinational firms. However, literature concerns the firmlevel study on an OFDI provider in the developing countries, such as China, is inadequate. Analyzing the case of China is vital for several reasons. First, China is the largest provider of OFDI within the developing countries. According to the 2014 Statistical Bulletin of China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment, China’s OFDI reached $123.12 billion in 2014, the highest level on record and the third highest in the world for three consecutive years following the US and Hong Kong. China’s OFDI has increased for 12 consecutive years since 2003, with the flow in 2014 being 45.6 times that of 2002, and an average growth rate as high as 37.5% during the period 2002 to 2014. This level of OFDI is sufficiently large for researchers to study the case of China as a representative one. Second, China’s government constantly promotes expanded production by Chinese enterprises in the global arena. Emerging-market governments have provided valuable resources to support the internationalization of the firms (Wang et al. 2012b). Thus, the impact of institutional factors on MNCs’ OFDI entails further consideration. Third, compared with the enterprises in developed countries, which have a particular competitive advantage to set up a foreign affiliate and earn higher returns, the decision concerning OFDI investment and the choice of location for China’s MNCs might be different.

Another issue is that the role of MNCs’ heterogeneity on Chinese firm’s decisions on OFDI has not been addressed sufficiently. To date, Tian and Yu (2012), Wakasugi and Zhang (2012), and Wei et al. (2013) examined how the productivity of Chinese firms affects their choices, that is, exports or OFDI, as well as the location of internationalization, namely, in high-income or low-income countries. Wakasugi and Zhang (2012) and Wei et al. (2013) employed crosssectional survey data but could not control the endogeneity caused by the data, and thus they failed to verify whether the surveyed companies had high productivity before engaging in OFDI activities. Tian and Yu (2012) investigated the relationships between firm productivity and OFDI based on the panel enterprise data of Zhejiang Province. Their results showed that firm productivity has a positive effect on enterprises’ investment and the amount of investment. Furthermore, after dividing the FDI firms into two groups according to the income level of the destination countries, they found that firm productivity has no significant effect on firm’s decision to invest in countries with different income levels. One shortcoming of the study is that they does not consider the the factors that determine an enterprise’s location choice.