供应链网络、市场环境与中国企业“抱团出海”

Supply Chain Networks,Market Environments and Chinese Enterprises“Going Global in Groups”

本文聚焦中国企业以“抱团出海”方式进入发展中国家市场的经济现象,基于企业异质性和供应链网络构建理论模型,探讨了“抱团出海”与东道国市场环境的关系,并利用企业微观数据对研究假说进行了经验检验。研究结果表明,供应链网络投资可以推动企业到同一国家进行直接投资,而且这一作用在市场环境薄弱的东道国更为明显,说明“抱团出海”有助于企业克服东道国的市场不完备。此外,传导机制分析表明,供应链网络投资可以通过信息传递和产销支撑帮助企业克服东道国的市场不完备。企业异质性分析表明,“抱团出海”更有益于规模小、年龄轻、资本密集度低的企业。本研究加深了对企业“抱团出海”现象的理解,也为夯实国内供应链网络以推动企业健康和有序的“走出去”提供了政策启示。

This paper investigates the economic phenomenon of Chinese firms entering developingcountries in a globalised manner as a group.Drawing on the literature on firm heterogeneity and supplychain networks,it proposes a theoretical model to explore the relationship between group globalisationand host country market environments,and empirically tests research hypotheses using firm-level data.The baseline estimate and robustness checks reveal that investment in supply chain networks caneventually drive firms to make direct investments in the same country,and this effect is morepronounced in host countries with weaker market environments,indicating that the group globalisationapproach can help firms overcome market incompleteness in the host country.After a series ofrobustness tests,such as the instrumental variables estimation,the above results remain solid.Analysisof the transmission mechanism suggests that supply chain network investment can help firms overcomemarket incompleteness in the host country through information transmission and production and salessupport.In addition,the analysis of firm heterogeneity shows that group globalisation is more useful forsmall,young and less capital-intensive firms to overcome the incompleteness of the host country market.These findings enrich the understanding of the phenomenon of firms globalising in groups and providepolicy implications for strengthening national supply chain networks with a view to better promoting theglobalisation of firms in a healthy and orderly manner.Key words:supply chain networks,market incompleteness,outward foreign direct investment(OFDI)