Analyzing the Characteristics and Evolution of Chinese Enterprises’ Outward Forward Direct Investment Host Country Network

Abstract

With the promulgation of the “Going Global” strategy, Chinese enterprises’ outward forward direct investment (OFDI) moved towards a stage of rapid development. Based on the data concerning projects of Chinese enterprises, this paper establishes a network of OFDI host countries with the industry as the media and analyzes the network and its evolution characteristics by using the complex network method. Results show that the number of network nodes is increasing, and the edges between communities are greater, and the number of countries along the Belt and Road route is increasing. The network is a so-called small-world network. To reduce investment risks, it is necessary to identify the key nodes in the network. Based on the centrality of key nodes in complex networks, the improved “scatter degree” method is used to evaluate the importance of each host node. Results demonstrate that the United States and Australia are the most important countries for Chinese enterprises to invest overseas, followed by Brazil, Canada, Russia, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom (UK). Excluding the UK, all other countries are resource-rich. Thus, it can be seen that the FDI of Chinese enterprises is mainly resource-based investment.