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| The Transmission Mechanism of Chinese OFDI Affecting Technological Innovation |
| CHEN Jingwei, JIANG Nengpeng
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Institute of Finance, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences;
Policy Research Office, Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China |
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Abstract Technology-seeking and “capital-for-technology” are major features of China's strategy for “going global” with innovation-driven development. In recent years, Chinese enterprises' outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and stocks have been among the best in the world. At the same time, no matter how much OFDI enablesa company's technological innovation, the company cannot succeed without effective support for capital allocation, and a distortion of the capital markets has a negative impact.Mitigatingthe impact of capital market distortion is an important challenge for corporate decision-makers. In view of this challenge, this paper attempts to build a framework for analyzing the transmission mechanismsby which technological innovation affects Chinese OFDI enterprises.
The data used in this paper come from the “Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database” (1998-2009), the “Abstracts of Chinese Patent Database, 1985-2012” , and the “List of Overseas Investment Enterprises (Institutions).” The main conclusions of the paper are as follows: (1) In recent years, OFDI from Chinese companies has had a positive effect on technological innovation. The main mechanism by which OFDI helps enterprises to promote technological innovation is factor-intensive conversion, which serves to improve an enterprise's efficiency in terms of management and production. (2) At present, distortion of the capital market remains a real problem in China, and such distortion significantly suppresses the effects of OFDI-based technological innovation.Distortion of the capital market operates as an external friction factor that interferes with the effective allocation of resources for innovation.
Unlike previous studies, this paper circumvents the debate about whether “market-led” or “bank-led” financial structures cause capital market distortions. The core issues explored are which factors cause these distortions,and how they affect OFDI-driven technological innovation in Chinese companies. In addition, the paper considers the selection of patented technology as a form of innovative behavior that is legally effective, and can affect the overall competitiveness of an enterprise's or even a country's capacity for independent innovation. This paper makes two marginal contributions. (1) It builds on existing research to construct a model of the relations between the three major factors of “factor-intensive conversion,”“management efficiency,” and “production efficiency.” This paper uses a recursive measurement model and draws on enterprise-related data to conduct a series of tests,and obtains a robust, credible research conclusion. This conclusion provides a reasonable explanation regarding the path by which Chinese companies can effectively use OFDI to obtain advanced foreign technologies. (2) Based on previous research concerning the impact that capital factor market distortions have on technological innovation, this paper incorporates the distorting factors affecting Chinese capital markets into aframework for analyzing the effects of OFDI technology innovation.Empirical tests are conducted to identify the mechanisms and results of capital factor market distortions that affect OFDI-driven technology innovation, thereby providing a new perspective on this issue.
During the process of marketizing capital elements, the effective mechanisms for making an effective link between technology and the economy, and for transforming knowledge into material form (from potential productivity to actual productivity) remain little understood. This article suggests that in the current stage of financial supply-side structural reform, China should build a plan to support the financialization of market-based intellectual property.Making such a plan is a different task from that of capital regulation, as it must include consideration for the equity, securitization, and liquidity of intellectual property. The proposed program is mainly concerned with “inducing” a financial mechanism that effectively combines capital elements and human capital, thereby providing more economic incentives for positive behavior on the part of entities (enterprises and individuals) that are willing to increase their R&D investment. Such an approach can channel more financial and human resources toward participation in corporate technological innovation. At the same time,this approach can improve the efficiency of corporate OFDI innovation and enable the transformation of China's economy.
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Received: 19 December 2019
Published: 01 September 2020
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