Industrial Intelligence Empowers China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment

Abstract

Abstract: Against the backdrop of escalating global trade frictions and the restructuring of industrial chains, China’s pattern of outward direct investment is undergoing an unprecedented reshaping and adjustment. Meanwhile, the rapid development of industrial intelligence has become an indispensable key variable in China’s strategic layout of outward direct investment. The article comprehensively analyzes the impact of industrial intelligence on China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) based on panel data from 212 prefecture level and above cities in China from 2011 to 2022. The research results are as follows. Firstly, industrial intelligence significantly promotes China’s OFDI, and this conclusion still holds true after overcoming endogeneity issues and conducting a series of robustness tests. Secondly, industrial intelligence can increase productivity to expand OFDI and intensify domestic market competition to drive OFDI. Thirdly, the richer the human capital and the higher the degree of openness to the outside world in the region, the more obvious the promotion effect. Fourthly, the impact of industrial intelligence on OFDI has a single threshold effect of digital finance, which only shows significant positive effects when the digital finance development in the region reaches a certain level. Fifthly, the impact of industrial intelligence on China’s OFDI shows significant heterogeneity, with only a significant promoting effect along the "Hu Huanyong Line" and in the southeastern region of China; And the promotion effect is more significant in non resource cities, areas with better intellectual property protection, and more complete digital infrastructure. From the perspective of industrial intelligence technology empowerment, this study re-examines the new driving forces of China’s OFDI, enriches the theoretical and empirical research on the development of industrial intelligence and China’s OFDI, and provides certain policy implications for China to efficiently utilize industrial intelligence to enhance global competitiveness and optimize the "going global" strategic layout in the digital economy era.

Key words: industrial intelligence, OFDI, productivity, digital finance, intellectual property protection

CLC Number:

F752.8

ZHOU Pengran, XUE Jun. Industrial Intelligence Empowers China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment[J]. Journal of Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, 2026(01): 22-34.

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