1.2 Significance
As the initiator of the Belt and Road Initiative,China pays special attention to the infrastructure connectivity with Belt and Road Countries(BRCs). In 2014,the APEC Beijing Summit launched the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Silk Road Fund,which opened the prelude for China to conduct OFDI in the infrastructure in developing countries. Driven by the Belt and Road Initiative,China can share the dividends of economic development by investing in the infrastructure of developing countries,thereby driving the growth of surrounding and regional economies. With the increasing influence of the Belt and Road Initiative on the world,China's foreign infrastructure investment has expanded rapidly. The investment market has spread to most countries globally(Yu,2017;Wen et al.,2018).
Foreign infrastructure investment has unique location preferences than investments in other industries. Under the complex international environment,the rational choice of foreign infrastructure investment location is an issue that China must face to promote the progress of the infrastructure connectivity with other countries. However,from the perspective of theoretical research related to foreign investment,most of the existing literature on overseas investment focuses on the location decision of the overall OFDI. In contrast,the research on location decisions of foreign infrastructure investment is quite lacking. From a practical point of view,in the process of overseas infrastructure investment by Chinese enterprises,a lack of understanding of target markets has caused inefficiencies in investment by multinational companies,which significantly affects the enthusiasm of Chinese enterprises to go global. In this context,studying the impact of the host country's economic environment factors on China's OFDII and efficiency has solid theoretical value and practical significance.
In terms of theoretical value,firstly,many scholars have conducted many studies on the location decision of overall OFDI,but less research has been done on foreign direct investment in the infrastructure,ignoring the particularity of the infrastructure industry;secondly,most scholars are more concerned about the effect of the political risk of the host country on foreign direct investment,but they do not pay enough attention to the economic risk related to the overall economic environment of the host country;thirdly,existing studies have paid less attention to the efficiency of foreign direct investment. In addition,many scholars have qualitatively pointed out that the Belt and Road Initiative can optimize the investment environment from various aspects,such as reducing risks,thereby promoting outward foreign direct investment. However,there is still a lack of quantitative research on the role of the Belt and Road Initiative on foreign direct investment. On the basis of sorting the literature on foreign direct investment,investment efficiency,and investment risk,this book summarizes the limitations of the existing studies on foreign infrastructure investment and economic risk. At the same time,based on reading much literature,this book uses empirical analysis methods to examine the actual promotion effect of the Belt and Road Initiative on China's OFDII,the relationship between the economic risk and the scale of China's OFDII,as well as the relationship between the economic risk and the efficiency of China's OFDII. This research enriches and improves the relevant theoretical studies to a certain extent.
From a practical point of view,in view of the rapid growth and increasingly important influence of China's outward foreign direct investment,examining the risk of China's OFDI is a real need to promote the sustainable development of China's foreign investment. Moreover,this book is of great significance for further guiding Chinese enterprises to do a good job in investment risk management and use international and domestic markets and resources better. Firstly,the level of risk management of Chinese multinational enterprises is generally not high. They lack understanding of the strategies,concepts,and institutional mechanisms of overseas investment risk management,which will significantly affect the quality of overseas investment. This research not only helps enterprises understand the economic risk environment of the host country,but also helps improve their risk management level and ability to protect the interests of overseas investment,which provides assistance for enterprises to go global. Secondly,this book attempts to examine the heterogeneous impact of economic risks on China's OFDII from the perspectives of economic risk components,industry categories,and country categories. This provides a basis for the early warning of economic risk in China's OFDI,which helps enterprises carry out more targeted investment,avoid blindness of investment,and improve the efficiency of foreign investment. Thirdly,the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative means that China's economic and trade development has entered a new stage,which puts forward new requirements for investment risk. This book studies economic risk and OFDI in infrastructure under the Belt and Road Initiative,which provides a theoretical basis for reducing investment risk and improving investment quality.