Digital Transformation and Firms' Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/8n08tj93Keywords:
Digital transformation, Foreign direct investment, green innovation, Financing constraints.Abstract
Against the backdrop of a new wave of economic globalization, digital transformation empowers firms' foreign direct investment, becoming a key lever for achieving high-quality international circulation. This paper takes A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2011 to 2022 as the research sample to explore the effect and mechanisms of digital transformation in promoting firms' FDI. The study finds that digital transformation significantly promotes firms' FDI, and this conclusion holds after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. Mechanism tests reveal that alleviating financing constraints and incentivizing green innovation are important transmission paths through which digital transformation promotes firms' FDI. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect of digital transformation on FDI is more pronounced in large firms and state-owned enterprises. This paper deepens the theoretical understanding of the internal logical relationship between digital transformation and firms' economic behavior, providing valuable insights for driving firms to better expand into overseas markets.
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