The dynamic relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and sustainable development has become a central topic of inquiry for academics and policymakers with rapid global economic growth. This study aims to clarify the impact mechanism and regional heterogeneity of FDI on total factor productivity (TFP) of Chinese high-tech enterprises, providing empirical evidence for optimizing foreign investment policies and promoting sustainable growth of enterprises. We utilized panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2022. The DEA-Malmquist index method is firstly employed to dynamically measure the TFP of high-tech enterprises, while a static panel model is utilized to empirically test the impact of FDI on TFP. A particular emphasis is then placed on analyzing the regional heterogeneity of technology spillovers. The findings reveal that FDI significantly enhances both the production efficiency and the technological innovation capacity of high-tech enterprises overall, thereby facilitating the sustainable growth of enterprises. Furthermore, technological innovation emerges as the core driving force behind TFP growth, whereas the expansion of labor input significantly decreases efficiency improvements. Notably, the technology spillover effects of FDI illustrate significant heterogeneity across different regions and types of enterprises. To promote the sustainable development of high-tech enterprises, this study provides evidence-based insights for foreign direct investment technologies to better enhancing the overall sustainable competitiveness of the economy in China.
Zhang et al. (2025) studied this question.