企业数字化转型如何影响对外直接投资二元边际?

How Does Digital Transformation of Enterprises Affect the Dual Marginof Foreign Direct Investment?

本文基于2010—2020年中国沪深两市A股上市公司数据,采用双向固定效应模型实证研究了企业数字化转型对对外直接投资二元边际的影响及其作用机制。研究结果表明:企业数字化转型能促进对外直接投资二元边际;企业数字化转型对对外直接投资二元边际的影响在企业、行业和城市层面存在异质性;企业数字化转型通过提高企业人力资本水平、提升企业监管效率和缓解企业融资约束促进对外直接投资二元边际;行业数字化转型、相似企业行动决策和成功企业行动决策对对外直接投资二元边际具有溢出效应。本文为推进企业数字化转型和推动企业“走出去”提供了实证依据,也为政府提升贸易投资合作质量和水平提供了决策参考。

Since joining the WTO,China’s foreign direct investment(FDI)has developed rapidly in both depth and breadth.Nevertheless,there are still a series of problems in China’s FDI,such as unclear competitive advantage and unbalanced geographical distribution.This not only makes enterprises face higher risks in the process of going global,but also brings challenges to China’s deep participation in global industrial division and cooperation.The accelerated digital transformation of enterprises has greatly improved the production efficiency and level of enterprises,and brought new opportunities for enterprises to enhance the probability and scale of FDI.In this context,it is of great academic value and practical significance to explore the impact of digital transformation of enterprises on the dual margin of FDI from a more detailed perspective by using firm⁃level data.Based on the data of A⁃share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2020,this paper empirically studies the influence of digital transformation of enterprises on the dual marginal of FDI and its mechanism by using the fixed effect model.The results show that the digital transformation of enterprises significantly promotes the dual margin of FDI,and the regression results are still robust after considering endogeneity problems.The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the digital transformation of enterprises significantly promotes the intensive margin of FDI of innovative enterprises and non⁃state⁃owned enterprises(SOEs),and has a significantly positive impact on the expansion margin of FDI of labor⁃intensive and capital⁃intensive enterprises,but only on the intensive margin of FDI of capital⁃intensive enterprises,and it has a more significant impact on the dual margin of FDI of enterprises in cities with high foreign capital inflow.The results of mechanism analysis show that the digital transformation of enterprises promotes the dual margin of FDI by improving the level of human capital and the efficiency of enterprise supervision,and relaxing the financing constraints of enterprises.Further analysis shows that digital transformation of industries,similar enterprises’action decisions and successful enterprises’action decisions have significant spillover effects.The marginal contributions of this paper are mainly reflected in the following three aspects.Firstly,on the basis of considering information technology,the influence of digital media,hardware facilities and digital infrastructure is included,and the digital transformation of enterprises is measured in dimensions of digital empowerment facilities,digital media and digital transaction.The influence of digital transformation of enterprises on FDI is systematically explored.Secondly,the FDI is decomposed into expansion margin and intensive margin,and the difference in the impact of enterprise digital transformation on dual margin of FDI.Thirdly,this paper expands the influence of digital transformation from enterprises to inter⁃enterprises to analyze the spillover effect of digital transformation in industries and enterprises.