对外直接投资（OFDI）作为发展中国家参与国际市场、获得技术溢出、实现产业升级的必要途径，对于我国加快构建以国内大循环为主体、国内国际双循环相互促进的新发展格局至关重要。面对百年未有之大变局、以及某些西方发达国家有意将中国排挤出国际产业链供应链的企图，有效增加中国OFDI的优势、巩固OFDI网络的活力和韧性，保证中国“外循环”稳定，是顺利构建新发展格局、实现高质量发展的重要保证。随着数字技术与各行业领域的业务流程、商业模式和组织架构实现深度融合，数字化场景在各个环节加速突破，数字化已经成为一个国家、城市和企业高质量发展的新优势。中国在数字化发展中具有全球领先优势，数字化水平和数字化能力逐年提高，城市数字化建设和企业数字化转型加速推进，数字经济、数字金融等数字创新产物对社会生产和生活方式颠覆式重塑，为数字化发展提供了丰富的现实应用场景。那么，数字化能否成为中国OFDI的新优势？中国能否利用在数字化方面取得的领先优势加速布局对外直接投资网络，抢占数字经济时代对外直接投资的核心地位？在此背景下，研究数字化对中国OFDI的影响具有重要的理论价值和现实价值。

本文从城市和企业层面研究数字化对中国OFDI的影响效应，并考察数字金融对中国OFDI影响效应在企业数字化能力方面的差异化表现。具体来说，从理论上分析了数字化对中国OFDI的影响，以及数字化能力在数字金融影响企业对外直接投资时的作用效果。随后，利用2009-2021年中国城市面板数据、2009-2021年中国上市企业数据、来自于fDi markets全球绿地投资数据库的绿地投资数据和来自于Zephyr全球并购交易分析库的跨国并购数据、2011-2020年中国数字金融数据等宏微观数据，并借助多种计量方法，从跨国企业和海外项目培育、企业对外直接投资新优势和数字化能力差异的视角，研究了数字化对中国OFDI的影响。

本文主要分为七个章节。第一章为导论。第二章为文献综述。重点梳理了与对外直接投资和数字化相关的文献。第三章为中国数字化水平与对外直接投资特征事实，首先从城市和企业两个方面介绍了数字化指标的构造方法以及中国数字化特征事实，其次对关于中国对外直接投资研究的数据进行概述并介绍了城市和企业对外直接投资的特征事实，最后对中国数字化水平与对外直接投资的相关性进行了简要分析。第四章为从跨国企业和海外项目培育的视角分析城市数字化建设对中国OFDI的影响。本章首先通过构建理论模型的方式推导分析城市数字化如何影响对外直接投资，并从信息摩擦缓解和创新能力提升两个方面论证其内在机制。其次，基于2009-2021年中国城市面板数据以及本文所构建的独特的城市对外直接投资数据，利用“宽带中国”试点政策作为城市数字化建设的外生冲击，从跨国企业和海外项目培育的视角来分析城市数字化建设的对外直接投资促进效应。在经过大量稳健性检验和内生性讨论来检验结论的稳健性后，进一步讨论了相关的作用机制和异质性分析。最后，对城市数字化建设的对外直接投资促进效应进行分解，考察其广延边际和集约边际的不同表现。第五章从企业对外直接投资新优势的视角分析企业数字化对中国OFDI的影响。首先，本章理论上归纳总结企业的数字化优势，并演绎推理出数字化优势如何促进中国企业对外直接投资，归纳总结出全要素生产率提升和海外经营成本降低这两条数字化优势提升中国企业对外直接投资韧性和活力的潜在机制。其次，基于2009-2021年中国A股上市工业企业数据库并匹配fDi Markets绿地投资数据库和Zephry全球并购数据库，综合采用多种计量方法，实证研究数字化优势对企业对外直接的投资决策、投资广度和投资深度的多维影响。最后，本文进行了多种稳健性检验和内生性分析，并讨论了研究结论的异质性影响。第六章从企业数字化能力差异的视角研究数字金融对中国OFDI的影响。首先，本章从数字化能力差异的角度分析了数字金融对中国OFDI的影响。其次，本章使用2011-2020年中国A股上市企业数据、数字金融指数数据以及分别来自于fDi Markets数据库和Zephry数据库的代表性对外直接投资数据。通过构建Probit模型和Tobit模型分别研究数字金融对企业OFDI决策和OFDI规模的影响。再次，引入数字不平等概念，分析数字金融对OFDI影响在不同数字化能力企业的异质性表现。最后，本章进行拓展性分析，验证数字鸿沟的存在导致数字金融对低数字化企业OFDI的负面影响存在明显异质性。第七章为结论与政策建议。总结了主要研究结论，并基于研究结论对于政府和企业提出了切实可行的政策建议。

通过详实的理论和实证分析，本文的主要研究结论可以概括为以下几点：

（1）中国数字化发展和对外直接投资特征事实。首先，从城市和企业层面介绍了常规的数字化指标以及本文的构造过程。主要发现，中国的整体数字化水平在逐年增加，具体到城市和企业层面同样表现出相似的变动趋势；东部地区企业的数字化水平要明显大于中西部地区，且中西部地区企业的数字化水平几乎一致，而信息传输、软件和信息技术服务业、租赁和商务服务业和科学研究和技术服务业的数字化水平偏高。其次，概述了中国对外直接投资数据的种类和特点，并简要介绍了本文使用的对外直接投资数据情况以及相应构造方法。具体发现，中国对外直接投资整体上呈现出上升趋势，但在2016年出现短暂下滑后于2019年开始回涨，概括起来主要分为三个阶段，“加速增长期”（2009-2016）、“理性调整期”（2016-2019）以及“反弹上升期”（2019-2021）。跨国企业和海外项目在空间上主要分布在东部地区以及我国的一些关键城市，并未像之前主要分布在东部沿海地区。而企业层面的对外直接投资活力和韧性呈现出逐年增加趋势，但在2018年由于中美贸易战、国际投资环境恶化等原因开始急剧下降。最后，基于构建得到的城市数字化数据和对外直接投资数据进行相关性分析。具体发现，无论使用何种数字化指标，城市数字化与跨国企业和海外项目数量均存在明显的正相关关系。

（2）从跨国企业和海外项目的视角考察城市数字化建设对中国OFDI影响的研究结论。第一，城市数字化建设能够显著且稳健地促进对外直接投资，主要表现为对跨国企业和海外项目培育数量的增加。第二，城市数字化建设对OFDI的促进作用在绿地投资样本的作用效果要大于跨国并购，且主要出现在东部地区。第三，信息摩擦缓解和创新能力提升是城市数字化建设促进对外直接投资的两条潜在机制。第四，广延边际和集约边际分析发现，城市数字化建设仅能够促进跨国企业和海外项目数量的增加，但对跨国企业的对外直接投资活力和韧性不存在显著促进效果。

（3）从企业对外直接投资新优势的视角考察数字化转型对中国OFDI影响的研究结论。第一，数字化能够显著且稳健地促进企业对外直接投资概率、拓展投资广度和深度，且数字化优势对企业对外直接投资的解释力度高达研发密度的48.3%-53.8%，说明数字化优势已经成为中国企业OFDI的“新优势”。第二，企业数字化优势通过提升全要素生产率和降低海外经营成本来促进中国企业OFDI。第三，数字化优势对中国企业OFDI的正向作用在绿地投资样本、非国有企业、传统行业及高竞争性行业中更为明显，且在中国OFDI“走进东道国”过程中，跨国公司数字化优势与东道国数字化优势间的竞争效应大于互补效应，数字化优势对中国企业OFDI的正向作用在高数字化水平东道国的样本中受到抑制。

（4）从企业数字化能力差异的视角考察数字金融对中国OFDI影响的研究结论。第一，数字鸿沟的存在导致数字金融降低了低数字化企业的投资概率和规模，而数字金融对高数字化企业OFDI的作用仍显著为正，企业数字化能力在这一过程中扮演重要的功能。第二，数字鸿沟的存在还导致数字金融降低了低数字化企业OFDI的投资广度和投资深度，对中国OFDI投资网络的稳定性产生冲击。第三，数字金融对低数字化企业OFDI的负向影响主要是由于数字鸿沟导致这些企业的信贷资源遭到挤占、融资约束变大。第四，数字金融对低数字化企业OFDI的阻碍作用仅发生在绿地投资和高竞争性行业样本中。

As a necessary way for developing countries to participate in the international market, obtain technology spillover and realize industrial upgrading, outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) is crucial for China to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern with domestic cycle as the main body and domestic and international cycles mutually reinforcing. In the face of the profound changes unseen in a century and the attempts of some western developed countries to exclude China out of the international industrial chain and supply chain, we need effectively increase the advantages of China’s OFDI, consolidate the vitality and resilience of the OFDI network and ensure the stability of China’s “external circulation” is an important guarantee for the smooth construction of a new development pattern and the realization of high-quality development. With the deep integration of digital technology with business processes, business models and organizational structures in various industries, digital scenes accelerate the breakthrough in each link, which makes digitalization a new advantage for the high-quality development of a country, cities and enterprises. China has the global leading advantage in the development of digitization. And the level and ability of Chinese digitization increase rapidly during the past years. Besides, with the acceleration of the urban digital construction and digital transformation, the digital innovation product like digital economy and digital finance is engaged in a subversive reshaping of social production and lifestyle, which provides rich realistic application scenarios for the digital development. So, can digitization be a new advantage for China’s OFDI? Can China take advantage of its leading advantage in digitalization to accelerate the layout of the OFDI network and seize the core position of OFDI in the digital economy era? In this context, studying the influence of digitization on OFDI in China has important theoretical and practical value.

This paper studies the impact of digitalization on OFDI in China from the perspective of city and enterprise, and examines the different performance of the effect of digital finance on OFDI in China in enterprise digitalization ability. Specifically, I theoretically analyze the impact of digitalization on OFDI in China, as well as the effect of digital capability when digital finance affects enterprises’ OFDI. Then, I studied the impact of digitalization on Chinese OFDI from the perspective of multinational enterprises and overseas projects, enterprise foreign direct investment new advantages and digital ability differences, using the Chinese city panel data from 2009 to 2021, the Chinese listed firm data from 2009 to 2021, the greenland investment data from fDi markets database, the mergers and acquisitions data from Zephyr database, Chinese digital finance data from 2011 to 2020, and with the help of a variety of econometric methods.

This paper includes seven chapters. Chapter 1 is the introduction. Chapter 2 is a literature review, focusing on combing the literature related to OFDI and digitization. Chapter 3 describes the characteristics of China’s digital level and OFDI. Firstly, introduce the construction method of digital index and the fact from the view of city and enterprise. Secondly, describe Chinese OFDI data and introduce the characteristics of the city and enterprise OFDI. Lastly, make a correlation analysis of China’s digital level and the OFD. Chapter 4 is to analyze the influence of urban digital construction on OFDI in China from the perspective of cultivating multinational enterprises and overseas projects. In this chapter, we first deduce and analyze how urban digitization affects OFDI by constructing a theoretical model, and demonstrate its internal mechanism from two aspects of information friction mitigation and innovation ability improvement. Secondly, based on the 2009-2021 Chinese city panel data and the unique urban OFDI data, using the “broadband China” pilot policy as the exogenous impact of construction of urban digitization, I analyze the city digital construction of foreign direct investment promotion effect from the perspectives of multinational enterprises and overseas projects. After extensive robustness tests and endogeneity discussion to test the robustness of the conclusions, the relevant mechanism of action and the heterogeneity analysis are further discussed. Finally, the OFDI promotion effect of urban digital construction is decomposed, and the different manifestations of its wide extension margin and its intensive margin are investigated. Chapter 5 analyzes the influence of enterprise digitization on OFDI in China from the perspective of the new advantages of OFDI. First of all, this chapter theoretically summarizes the digital advantages of enterprises and deduces how digital advantages promote the OFDI of Chinese enterprises. Besides, I summarize the two potential mechanisms of total factor productivity improvement and the overseas operating costs reduction to enhance the resilience and vitality of Chinese enterprises. Secondly, based on the database of Chinese A-share listed industrial enterprises in 2009-2021 and matching fDi markets greenland investment database and Zephry global merger and acquisition database, a variety of econometric methods are comprehensively adopted to demonstrate the multi-dimensional impact of digital advantages on enterprises’ OFDI decision, investment breadth and investment depth. Finally, a series of robustness tests and endogeneity analysis were performed, and the impact of heterogeneous conclusions were discussed. Chapter 6 studies the influence of digital finance on OFDI in China from the perspective of enterprise digital capability difference. First, this chapter analyzes the impact of digital finance on OFDI in China from the perspective of digital capability differences. Secondly, this chapter uses the data of Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2011 to 2020, the digital financial index data, and the representative OFDI data from the fDi markets database and the Zephry database, respectively. The influence of digital finance on the decision of enterprise OFDI and OFDI scale was studied by constructing Probit model and Tobit model respectively. Thirdly, the concept of digital inequality is introduced to analyze the heterogeneous impacts of digital finance on OFDI in enterprises with different digital capabilities. Finally, this chapter conducts an extended analysis to verify that the existence of the digital divide leads to the obvious Heterogeneously negative impact of digital finance on the OFDI of low digital enterprises. Chapter 7 is for the conclusions and policy recommendations. The main research conclusions are summarized, and some feasible policy suggestions are put forward for the government and enterprises based on the research conclusions.

Through the detailed theoretical and empirical analysis, the main research conclusions of this paper can be summarized as following:

(1) The characteristics of digitization development and OFDI in China. Firstly, introduce the conventional digital index and the construction process from the city and enterprise level. The main findings are that the overall digitalization level of China is increasing year by year, and it also shows similar trend at the urban and enterprise levels. The digitalization level of enterprises in the eastern region is significantly greater than that of the central and western regions, and the digitalization level of enterprises in the central and western regions is almost consistent, while the digitalization level of information transmission, software and information technology services leasing and business services and scientific research and technology services is high. Secondly, the article summarizes the types and characteristics of Chinese OFDI data, and briefly introduces the OFDI data used in this paper and the corresponding construction methods. Specifically, it is found that Chinese OFDI shows an upward trend on the whole, but began to rebound in 2019 after a short decline in 2016, which can be divided into three stages: “accelerated growth period” (2009-2016), “rational adjustment period” (2016-2019) and “rebound and rising period” (2019-2021). Multinational enterprises and overseas projects are mainly spatial distributed in the eastern region and some key cities in China. However, they are not mainly distributed in the eastern coastal areas as before. The vitality and resilience of OFDI at the enterprise level are increasing year by year, but in 2018, it began to decline sharply due to the trade war between China and the United States and the deterioration of the international investment environment. Finally, the correlation analysis is conducted based on the constructed urban digital data and OFDI data. Specifically, it is found that no matter what the digital indicators are used, there is an obvious positive correlation between urban digitization and the number of multinational enterprises and overseas projects.

(2) Research conclusions on the impact of urban digitalization on OFDI in China from the perspective of multinational enterprises and overseas projects. Firstly, urban digitization can significantly and steadily promote OFDI, mainly manifested in the cultivation of multinational enterprises and overseas projects. Secondly, the effect of this promotion in greenland investment is greater than cross-border mergers and acquisitions, mainly in the eastern region. Thirdly, the alleviation of information friction and the improvement of innovation ability are the two potential mechanisms for urban digitalization to promote OFDI. Fourthly, the analysis of widely extended margin and intensive margin found that urban digitization can only promote the increase of the number of multinational enterprises and overseas projects, but there is no significant promotion effect on the vitality and resilience of multinational enterprises OFDI.

(3) Investigate the impact of digital transformation on China’s OFDI from the perspective of the new advantages of enterprises’ external direct investment. Firstly, digitalization can significantly and steadily promote the probability of enterprise OFDI and expand the breadth and depth of investment. Moreover, the interpretation of enterprise OFDI is as high as 48.3% -53.8% of the R&D density, indicating that digital advantage has become the “new advantage” of OFDI of Chinese enterprises. Secondly, the digital advantage of enterprises promotes the OFDI of Chinese enterprises by improving total factor productivity and reducing overseas operating costs. Thirdly, the digital advantage of Chinese enterprise OFDI in greenland investment samples, non-state-owned enterprises, traditional industries and highly competitive industries are more obvious. And in the process of the enterprises “going into the host country”, the competition effect between multinational company digital advantage and host country digital advantage is greater than the complementary effect, which leads to that the positive effect of Chinese enterprise OFDI in high digital level host countries is suppressed.

 (4) Investigate the impact of digital finance on Chinese OFDI from the perspective of differences in enterprise digital capabilities. Firstly, the existence of the digital divide leads to the reduce of the investment probability and scale of low digital enterprises by digital finance. However, the digital finance still plays a significant positive role in high digital enterprises OFDI, and the digital ability of enterprises plays an important role in this process. Secondly, the existence of the digital divide also leads to digital finance to reduce the investment breadth and depth of low digital enterprises OFDI, which has a negative impact on the stability of China’s OFDI network. Thirdly, the negative impact of digital finance on OFDI of low digital enterprises is mainly due to the digital divide, the crowding of credit resources of these enterprises and the greater constraints of financing. Fourthly, the hindering effect of digital finance on OFDI of low digital enterprises only occurs in the sample of greenland investment and highly competitive industries.