Foreign direct investment via M&A and domestic entrepreneurship: blessing or curse?

There are conflicting predictions in the literature about the relationship between FDI and entrepreneurship. This paper explores how foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, measured by lagged cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A), affect entrepreneurial entry in the host economy. We have constructed a micro-panel of more than two thousand individuals in each of seventy countries, 2000–2009, linked to FDI by matching sectors. We find the relationship between FDI inflows and domestic entrepreneurship to be negative across all economies. This negative effect is much more pronounced in developed than developing economies and is also identified within industries, notably in manufacturing. Policies to encourage FDI via M&A need to consider how to counteract the prevailing adverse effect on domestic entrepreneurship.     

Wages and foreign ownership A comparative study of Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States

This paper explores the relationship between wages and foreign investment in Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States. Despite very different economic conditions and levels of development, we find one fact that is robust across all three countries: higher levels of foreign investment are associated with higher wages. However, in Mexico and Venezuela, foreign investment is associated with higher wages only for foreign-owned firms — there is no evidence of wage spillovers leading to higher wages for domestic firms. The lack of spillovers in Mexico and Venezuela is consistent with significant wage differentials between foreign and domestic enterprises. In the United States, where the evidence suggests some wage spillovers from foreign to domestic enterprises, wage differentials are smaller.     

Economic performance over time: Does porter's diamond hold at the national level?

This research examines the conditions that contribute to the performance of countries and their industries in international markets. Building on Porter's dynamic diamond, 1960 and 1985 data on 49 countries are used to develop country-level factors related to national economic performance. Three factors were identified: infrastructure/demand, competitive investment, and education. The analysis considers how these factors are related to gross domestic product, net exports, and foreign direct investment. It also assesses changes over time and differences between industrialized and developing countries. The relationships between the three factors and GDP were substantially the same for both industrialized and developing countries, but not for net exports and foreign direct investment. These findings suggest that the relationships between the factors and national performance have changed over time and that there are important differences between developing and industrialized countries.     

Intellectual Property Rights,FDI, R&D and Economic Growth: A Cross‐country Empirical Analysis

This paper aims to empirically examine how intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection, foreign direct investment (FDI) and research and development (R&D), along with other possible variables, may affect the economic growth of the host country. Using the panel data of 92 countries during 1970–2007, I conclude from the system generalised method of moments estimation that domestic investment share, FDI, R&D capacity, openness to trade, human capital and IPRs protection all have statistically significant and positive impacts on economic growth. A further investigation of countries at different levels of development suggests two striking findings. First, besides the domestic investment, openness, human capital and IPRs protection, R&D is the key to drive economic growth in the higher‐income countries, while FDI is the engine of growth in both higher‐income and middle‐income countries. Second, a positive and significant impact of IPRs protection on economic growth is found in both higher‐income and lower‐income countries. However, such an impact is not detected in the middle‐income countries.     

东道国劳工标准会影响中国对外直接投资吗?

本文根据劳动力产权理论并在总结国内外研究的基础上,选取了2003-2009年中国和152个东道国的面板数据,实证考察了东道国劳工标准对中国对外直接投资的影响,采用静态OLS和SYS-GMM方法对全样本、发达国家和发展中国家的样本进行验证。结果表明:中国的对外直接投资总体上更倾向于流入低劳工标准的国家,而发达国家和发展中国家劳工标准对中国对外直接投资的影响存在着截然不同的效应,发达国家的高劳工标准和发展中国家的低劳工标准分别吸引了中国的对外直接投资,此外通过分位数回归和广义最小二乘法及两阶段最小二乘估计法进行的稳健性检验不仅表明本文的结论是可靠的,而且发现中国的对外直接投资有向低劳工标准国家集聚的趋势。最后从规避劳工风险的角度提出了相应的政策建议。     

巴西利用外国直接投资及对我国的启示

自从第二次世界大战结束后,巴西开始重视利用外国直接投资,经历了三个阶段的转变,引导外国直接投资流向重点发展部门,在短时间内建立了新兴工业。巴西政府在利用外国直接投资过程中,强调外资来源多样化,引导外国直接投资投向经济欠发达地区,但工业部门受外资控制程度过高,政府部门对国内市场高度保护。我国应借鉴巴西的经验及教训,在吸收外国直接投资过程中保持谨慎,积极引导外商向中西部地区投资,加大引进发达国家直接投资的力度。     

The impact of FDI on the performance and entrepreneurship of domestic firms

This paper examines how foreign direct investments influence the performance and entrepreneurship of domestic firms, a crucial question for economies driven by incursion of exogenous factors and especially transition economies. The intent is to investigate the way foreign direct investments shape the capabilities of domestic firms; hence, for this purpose, we take Macedonia, a Southeast European economy, as a case study. We find that (i) foreign ownership has helped restructure and enhance the productivity of domestic firms, (ii) FDI has positive influence in reinforcing the creation of new firms, and (iii) in line with the established literature, a foreign investment is likely to influence the job seeker to get employed rather to start their own business. Overall, the results confirm the influence of foreign firms in assisting entrepreneurial activity. The impact of foreign investment is, in general, positive and tends to influence the restructuring process of domestic enterprises.     

Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in EP and IS Countries: The Role of Corruption

Corruption is understood as an act in which the power of public office is used for personal gain in a manner that contravenes the rules established by the governing structures of a society. This study attempts to offer an extension to the empirical model employed by Balasubramanyam et al. (1996 ) by analysing how FDI determines economic growth within the new growth theory framework when the degree of corruption is considered. Thus, the study seeks to examine the way in which corruption can have an impact on the economic growth of developing countries whose trade strategies differ (either IS and EP). It suggests that further insight can be gained by considering how corruption might interact with the trade policy in affecting economic growth. This is examined using a fixed‐effects, simultaneous equation model for 17 countries over the period 1994–2004. The results show that the level of corruption strongly and negatively influences foreign direct investment in both IS and EP countries. However, when the corruption index is interacted with domestic investment, the influence on foreign direct investment is positive and significant for IS countries only. The most interesting outcome of the study is the effect of the interaction term between foreign direct investment and the corruption perception index on economic growth, which is found to be greater in magnitude for the EP countries than for the IS countries.     

Foreign direct investment and entrepreneurship: Does the role of institutions matter?

Development economics, international business, and entrepreneurship literature suggest that foreign direct investment (FDI) has significant positive spillover effects for entrepreneurial activities of host economies. However, the findings of past research are mixed, and they do not always confirm this suggestion. We argue that the reason for conflicting findings may be because of an incomplete understanding of the factors that influence the FDI-entrepreneurship nexus in different contexts. Previous studies have carried out only limited exploration of the contingencies in the FDI and domestic entrepreneurship relationship that may depend on the host country’s institutional capacity. We argue that not all countries can reap the rewards from FDI equally. Rather, we hypothesize that countries need to have a sufficient degree of institutional capacity relevant to specific conditions and appropriate threshold levels to successfully capture the positive spillover effects of FDI on domestic entrepreneurship. Utilizing panel data from 2006 to 2016 for 97 emerging markets, developing and developed countries (at different income levels), and a System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) estimator that controls for instrument proliferation in dealing with endogeneity problems, we test this hypothesis. We find that FDI has a negative (crowding-out) effect on domestic entrepreneurship at below-threshold levels of institutional capacity, and a positive (crowding-in) effect at above-threshold levels of institutional capacity. The crowding-out effect diminishes as the institutional capacity changes or improves to meet mutating economic environment conditions. Our findings are robust across a wide range of aggregate and disaggregate measures of different types of institutions and alternative empirical strategies.     

World market integration through the lens of foreign direct investors

This paper is motivated by the unparalleled increase in foreign direct investment to emerging market economies of the last 25 years. Using a large cross-country time-series data set, we evaluate the dependence of foreign direct investment on global factors, or worldwide sources of risk (i.e., factors that drive foreign direct investment across several countries). We construct a globalization measure that equals the share of explained variation in direct investment attributable to global factors. We show that our globalization measure has increased steadily for developing and developed countries. For the full sample of countries, the globalization measure rose by over 10-fold from 1985 to 1999. Furthermore, in recent years, developing countries' exposure to global factors has approached that of developed countries. Finally, our globalization measure correlates strongly with measures of capital market liberalization, supporting our hypothesis that increased market integration leads to a greater role for worldwide sources of risk. We discuss the implications of our results for public policies regarding capital market liberalization and policies directed at attracting foreign investment.     

Innovation,productivity and foreign direct investment-induced R&D spillovers

This article examines the effect of foreign direct investment on innovation and productivity in the host and home countries. I investigate how the flows of knowledge transmitted through FDI affect the production of knowledge in both source and recipient countries, as well as how these flows affect productivity. Using patent citations within FDI as the measure of the degree of ‘access’ that one nation gains to the R&D knowledge of another, and new patents as the measure of innovation, results reveal that there are large differences in the way FDI affects innovation and productivity between countries that are technological leaders, and technological followers. Both inward and outward FDI are found to have a strong positive effect on domestic innovation and productivity in countries that are technological followers. For technological leaders, outward FDI is highly conducive to increased domestic innovation, while inward FDI seems to increase competition between domestic and foreign firms, making it more difficult to come up with new viable ideas. As for domestic productivity, inward FDI is highly beneficial for technological leaders, while outward FDI does not have a significant effect. I conclude that technological followers have much to gain from FDI-induced R&D spillovers, and therefore governments in these countries will find it worthwhile to attract foreign multinationals, while those in the more technologically advanced economies need to weigh the costs and benefits of FDI carefully.     

产品创新如何影响我国企业对外直接投资速度？——基于微观层面数据的实证检验

在国际投资理论中,传统观点认为具有产品创新的优势企业有更大的动机进行对外直接投资,而近年来发展中国家的实践则表明劣势企业出于获取创新资源的目的也有较大的动机进行对外直接投资,文章从产品创新和企业对外直接投资速度视角对此进行检验。文章匹配《中国工业企业数据库》和《境外投资企业（机构）名录》构建微观实证研究数据库,并对企业对外直接投资速度和产品创新进行度量。在此基础上,文章的实证研究发现,一方面在产品创新倾向维度,无产品创新的企业比有产品创新企业有更快的对外直接投资速度;另一方面,在有产品创新企业内部,创新程度的提升则能加快企业对外直接投资速度。进一步地,文章利用倾向得分匹配对产品创新倾向如何影响企业对外直接投资速度进行反事实估计,验证了实证研究结果的稳健性。     

FDI与经济增长、国内资本及劳动力作用机理

基于VAR理论及其模型,实证检验了1983-2006年以来我国利用外商直接投资与经济增长、国内资本及劳动力就业之间的相互作用机理认为外商直接投资对我国经济增长的作用符合新古典经济增长模型,对国内资本形成并无显著的促进作用,对劳动力就业只存在单向影响作用,旨在为我国利用外资提供决策依据。     

Institutional Forms of British Foreign Direct Investment in South America

This article uses South American evidence to substantiate a claim that, notwithstanding the many difficulties of controlling overseas agents, effective strategic control was exerted over much British direct investment in South America through entrepreneurial companies or mercantile investment groups before 1914. The new definition of foreign direct investment established in the 1970s embraces corporate investment, of a sort common in North America, for which British directors were responsible even though they exerted inadequate control, but South American experience, relating to a substantially larger body of investment, supports the stronger contention that it captures substantial pools of entrepreneurial capital, more clearly deserving the name foreign direct investment, and therefore provides a category that can be applied consistently in discussions of foreign direct investment and the expansion of international business over the whole of the period from 1860 to the present.     

The interplay of entrepreneurship education and national cultures in entrepreneurial activity: a social cognitive perspective

Does entrepreneurship education result in entrepreneurial activities across national cultures? For the most part, prior research has examined the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial activity, using country-specific samples. However, many of these results are inconsistent. One reason for such inconsistent results may be a limitation of country-specific samples, given that they are valid in a domestic context but not generalizable. Our study addresses this limitation by using a cross-national sample of 24,457 respondents from 38 countries to examine the role of diverse national cultures. Building on the social cognitive theory, our results show that entrepreneurship education is more seminal for entrepreneurial activities that take place in countries with greater individualism, less uncertainty avoidance, and a high level of masculinity. This research presents a more complete picture of how entrepreneurship education may affect international entrepreneurship contingent upon national culture, and has implications for researchers, educators, and policy makers.     

东道国投资壁垒、汇率波动与中国对外直接投资

在国际竞争激烈的大背景下,各国的投资壁垒日益增加。我们采用2010-2019年41个国家的面板数据,构建了以实际有效汇率指数为中介变量的中介效应模型并进行Sobel检验,探究了东道国投资壁垒对我国对外直接投资的影响作用。研究发现,东道国投资壁垒的上升会减少我国的对外直接投资流量,实际有效汇率指数在其中不存在中介效应,而是存在遮掩效应,即投资限制指数遮掩了实际有效汇率指数对外来直接投资的影响作用。最后,据此提出拓展我国对外直接投资发展空间的相关建议。     

Growing up with capital flows

We examine the capital flows-domestic investment relationship for 60 developing countries from 1979 to 1999. In the 1990s, even as liberalization attracted new flows, foreign capital stimulated less domestic investment than in the preceding decade. With greater financial integration, governments accumulated more international reserves and domestic residents diversified by investing abroad. Foreign investors were also motivated by diversification objectives rather than by unmet investment needs. Inflows were channeled increasingly through portfolio flows—or through foreign direct investment (FDI) with the characteristics of portfolio capital—resulting in weak investment stimulus. However, stronger policy environments strengthened the link between inflows and investment.     

Developing countries in competition for foreign investment

This study analyzes the competition for foreign direct investment (FDI) among countries at different stages of development. It is assumed that domestic companies in a more-developed country use more capital in production and that wages in a less-developed country are lower. Countries can compete for FDI by increasing the supply of public inputs in the economy, in addition to (or instead of) offering subsidies or tax reliefs to foreign investors. The results reveal that if governments of competing countries are not allowed to discriminate between domestic and foreign firms, there may be situations in which a less-developed economy will attract FDI depending on the labor cost differential and the responsiveness of foreign investor's and domestic companies' output to changes in the supply of public inputs. If tax discrimination between domestic and foreign firms is permitted, both countries will optimally raise the supply of public inputs, but the more-developed country will always win the foreign investment despite higher labor costs. Thus, governments of less-developed countries may have an incentive to work on an international agreement to disallow tax discrimination.     

Antecedents of international and domestic learning effort

We examine the antecedents of international and domestic learning effort in independent firms. We combine learning theory and the “attention-based” view to examine how firms' degree of internationalization, the age at international entry, and entrepreneurial orientation are associated with the extent to which they engage in foreign and domestic learning activities. In particular, our study shows that early entry in foreign markets and an entrepreneurial orientation are positively related to a culture that promotes learning effort in international and domestic markets. On the other hand, whereas a firm's degree of internationalization does not have a significant association with international learning effort, the degree of internationalization is negatively related to domestic learning effort. We discuss the implications of our study for theory, practice, and future research.     

Developing countries rethink their approach to foreign investment

Many observations made in recent years suggest that even the developing countries which were previously known to have a sceptical approach to direct foreign investment have begun to take a fresh look at the situation. Undoubtedly, experiences with domestic state-owned enterprises and general doubts concerning centralised economic control coupled with the evidence provided by other countries pursuing an open policy towards foreign investment have proved to be crucial factors in bringing many developing countries to see in a new light the contribution private-sector investment can make to economic growth.