跨境电商、华商网络与中国企业OFDI

全球互联网经济时代，影响中国对外直接投资的因素除了华商网络、制度环境与经济因素外，还有跨境电商。通过分析华商网络对中国企业OFDI的影响、跨境电商对华商网络OFDI的影响和不同类别的跨境电商对华商网络OFDI的差异化影响，研究发现：（1）华商网络会正向促进中国企业OFDI。（2）跨境电商对华商网络OFDI有正面的积极效应。（3）不同类别的跨境电商对华商网络OFDI的影响存在差异，相较于B2C跨境电商贸易，B2B跨境电商贸易对华商网络OFDI的影响更大；相较于跨境电商进口贸易，跨境电商出口贸易对华商网络OFDI的影响更显著。

Cross-Border E-Commerce,Ethnic Chinese Network,and Outward Foreign Direct Investment

In the context of globalization, the scale of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI)of China has grown rapidly. Besides the macro-institutional environment and micro-factors, the OFDI of China is also affected by the ethnic Chinese networks and cross-border e-commerce. Ethnic Chinese networks are self-organized business networks established by Chinese in the host country. Due to its locality and internationality characteristics, ethnic Chinese network has become one of the sources of the unique competitive advantages of China’s multinational enterprises in overseas operations, which have important influences on the multinational’s overseas business. Meanwhile, cross-border e-commerce emerges as a product of economic globalization and continuous advancement of mobile information technology. Researchers have made detailed studies on the influencing factors and logistics models of cross-border e-commerce. Given that international trade will promote international investment, how will cross-border e-commerce, as an emerging international trade mode, affect OFDI? Overseas subsidiaries of Chinese enterprises will naturally embed into the ethnic Chinese networks in the host countries, and then how will cross-border e-commerce affect the OFDI triggered by the ethnic Chinese networks? This study selects panel data from 103 countries that received China’s OFDI. It was implemented in two stages. In the first stage, the effects of ethnic Chinese networks on Chinese OFDI are examined, thus obtaining the coefficients of ethnic Chinese networks on OFDI. In the second stage, this study multiplies the influential factor of ethnic Chinese networks on OFDI from Chinese enterprises by the amount of OFDI from China to measure the OFDI from ethnic Chinese networks, which represents the part of the OFDI that is caused by the utility of the ethnic Chinese networks(referred to as OFDI from ethnic Chinese networks). Based on these data, this study examines the effect of cross-border e-commerce on OFDI from ethnic Chinese networks, as well as the impact of different types of cross-border e-commerce on the OFDI effects from ethnic Chinese networks. Considering the possible endogenous problem between the ethnic Chinese networks and OFDI of multinational enterprises, this study selects passport cost as the instrumental variable to reduce the endogenous concerns, verifying the robustness of the empirical results. The empirical results indicate that: (1) Ethnic Chinese networks has a significant positive effect on OFDI of China. In other words, the higher the strength of the ethnic Chinese networks, the faster the OFDI growth of Chinese multinational enterprises. (2) Cross-border e-commerce has a positive impact on the growth of OFDI from ethnic Chinese networks. For every 1% increase in the trade scale of cross-border e-commerce, OFDI from ethnic Chinese networks increases by 0.602%. (3)B2B cross-border e-commerce exerts greater impact on OFDI from ethnic Chinese networks than B2C cross-border e-commerce, and export cross-border e-commerce is more influential than import cross-border e-commerce on OFDI from ethnic Chinese networks. This study establishes a fresh framework by incorporating the cross-border e-commerce and ethnic Chinese networks into the OFDI research. Through the introduction of the OFDI from ethnic Chinese networks, this study clearly defines the OFDI effect caused by the ethnic Chinese networks, and expands the research boundary between the ethnic Chinese networks and OFDI. By examining the relationship between the cross-border e-commerce and OFDI from ethnic Chinese networks, this study also provides a new perspective for cross-border e-commerce research in the new economic era. The empirical findings provide the following practical implications: (1) The government should maintain and improve the international migration environments, and provide a good environment for the construction of interaction platforms between enterprises and emigration networks. Policy makers should further relax access conditions of cross-border e-commerce, encourage capital investment in cross-border e-commerce enterprises and guide OFDI enterprises to integrate with the emigration networks and the Internet Plus; (2)Multinational enterprises should attach importance to the communication with the emigration networks and organizations in the host country to enhance the interaction with the local mainstream society, thereby avoiding unnecessary overseas investment frictions and reducing OFDI trade costs. Multinational enterprises should strengthen the cultivation of Internet thinking, and take full advantage of the low-cost and convenient characteristics of cross-border e-commerce to maximize the effect of ethnic Chinese networks, further facilitating the continuous operation of such networks and multinational enterprises.