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The rapid development of the digital economy has been instrumental in driving corporate digital transformation, exerting profound effects on enterprises' outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). Concurrently, advancements in digital technologies have led to qualitative and quantitative leaps in the quality and scale of trade and investment. Based on theoretical analysis, this paper focuses on A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges between 2011 and 2021, examining how digital transformation promotes enterprises' outward OFDI and its underlying mechanisms. The research reveals that corporate digital transformation significantly enhances their engagement in outward foreign direct investment, and this conclusion remains robust after being subjected to various robustness checks, including indicator substitution, interaction fixed effects, double clustering robust standard errors, and panel quantile regressions.Moreover, upon conducting endogeneity tests using the mean value of a digital transformation index grouped by year and industry as an instrumental variable, the findings still hold firm. This study enriches the body of knowledge on the economic consequences of digital transformation for tangible businesses and the factors influencing corporate outward foreign direct investment. It provides valuable insights to guide enterprises in more effectively expanding into overseas markets.
Xuyang Ma (Tue,) studied this question.