Going Global in the Digital Era

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of digital finance on Chinese OFDI using Probit and Logit models on A-share-listed Chinese enterprises and representative OFDI data from 2011 to 2020. It shows that digital finance has a heterogeneous impact on Chinese OFDI both in probability and scale depending on the enterprise digitalization level. That is, digital finance has a positive (negative) effect on the OFDI of high (low) digital enterprises. Mechanism analysis reveals that the digital divide, which causes credit resources to be squeezed and increased financing constraints for these enterprises, is the main cause of the negative impact of digital finance on the OFDI of low-digital enterprises while the negative impact of digital finance on the OFDI of low-digital enterprises is limited to greenfield investments and highly competitive industries. The findings highlight the importance of encouraging enterprise digital transformation when developing digital finance policies to effectively leverage the potential of digital finance to drive Chinese firms' OFDI.