ENHANCEMENT OF PROJECT ACTIVITY AND INNOVATION CAPABILITY THROUGH OUTWARD FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT BY CHINESE DIGITAL ENTERPRISES UNDER THE BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE
Abstract
The article is devoted to Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) by Chinese digital economy enterprises. Project activity is not only as the core carrier of OFDI, but also a key link connecting enterprise investment behavior and improvement of innovation capacity. This study adopts the difference-in-differences (DID) method, introduces project activity as an intermediary variable, and empirically examines the impact of OFDI-driven project activity on the innovation capacity of Chinese digital economy enterprises under the BRI framework. Empirical results show that: first, under the BRI framework, OFDI of digital economy enterprises has a significant positive impact on improvement of innovation capacity. Second, project activity plays a partial mediating role between the OFDI of digital enterprises and their innovation capacity. Third, OFDI project activities of digital enterprises in priority areas have a more significant impact on innovation capacity.
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