IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i22p9616-d447107.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Natural Resources and Foreign Direct Investment in Africa: Evidence from Chinese Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Yan Chen

    (College of Management, Beijing University of Post Communication, Beijing 100876, China)

  • Ruirui Zhai

    (College of Management, Beijing University of Post Communication, Beijing 100876, China)

  • Kevin H. Zhang

    (Department of Economics, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790–4200, USA)

Abstract

The rise of China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in Africa has promoted the continent’s economic growth but generated controversy in the West. What drives Chinese investment in the continent with abundant natural resources but poor institutions/governance? While the topic is important, studies on the issue in the literature have been limited. This paper attempts to close the gap by testing hypotheses of the role of resources and institutions with panel data in 2003–2013. Estimates suggest that the Chinese investment is not biased toward resource-rich and institution-poor countries but similar to Western investment, and China’s OFDI is largely profit-driven, just like investors from other countries. Institutional supports from the Chinese government, however, seems to be important to China’s OFDI in Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Yan Chen & Ruirui Zhai & Kevin H. Zhang, 2020. "Natural Resources and Foreign Direct Investment in Africa: Evidence from Chinese Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-18, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:22:p:9616-:d:447107
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9616/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/22/9616/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Chengqi & Hong, Junjie & Kafouros, Mario & Boateng, Agyenim, 2012. "What drives outward FDI of Chinese firms? Testing the explanatory power of three theoretical frameworks," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 425-438.
    2. Elizabeth Asiedu, 2006. "Foreign Direct Investment in Africa: The Role of Natural Resources, Market Size, Government Policy, Institutions and Political Instability," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 63-77, January.
    3. Kevin Honglin Zhang, 2009. "Rise of Chinese Multinational Firms," Chinese Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(6), pages 81-96, November.
    4. Mina, Wasseem, 2007. "The location determinants of FDI in the GCC countries," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 336-348, October.
    5. Wenjie Chen & David Dollar & Heiwai Tang, 2018. "Why Is China Investing in Africa? Evidence from the Firm Level," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 32(3), pages 610-632.
    6. Deborah Brautigam & Tang Xiaoyang & Ying Xia, 2018. "What Kinds of Chinese ‘Geese’ Are Flying to Africa? Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 27(suppl_1), pages 29-51.
    7. Wasseem, Mina, 2007. "Are the GCC FDI Location Determinants Favorable?," Economics Discussion Papers 2007-23, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    8. Peter J Buckley & L Jeremy Clegg & Adam R Cross & Xin Liu & Hinrich Voss & Ping Zheng, 2007. "The determinants of Chinese outward foreign direct investment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(4), pages 499-518, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abderrazek Ben Hamouda, 2023. "On the Link Between FDI, Political Risk and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Panel VAR Approach," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 5(2), pages 171-180.
    2. Florenca Gjorduni, 2023. "Diaspora Impact on Foreign Direct Investment: State Institutions on Diaspora Engagement," European Journal of Marketing and Economics Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 6, ejme_v6_i.
    3. Ernest Nkansah‐Dwamena & Hyunsoo Yoon, 2022. "Why is sub‐Saharan Africa an attractive destination to foreign land grabbers? Evidence from country characteristics," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(2), pages 280-292, June.
    4. Xiaoling Zhang & Decai Tang & Brandon J. Bethel, 2021. "Analyzing the Characteristics and Evolution of Chinese Enterprises’ Outward Forward Direct Investment Host Country Network," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-19, September.
    5. Zhang, Kevin H., 2021. "How does South-South FDI affect host economies? Evidence from China-Africa in 2003–2018," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 690-703.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Federico Carril-Caccia & Juliette Milgram-Baleix & Jordi Paniagua, 2019. "Foreign Direct Investment in oil-abundant countries: The role of institutions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-23, April.
    2. Xie, En & Reddy, K.S. & Liang, Jie, 2017. "Country-specific determinants of cross-border mergers and acquisitions: A comprehensive review and future research directions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 127-183.
    3. Andrew G Ross & Maktoba Omar & Anqi Xu & Samikshya Pandey, 2019. "The impact of institutional quality on Chinese foreign direct investment in Africa," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 34(6), pages 572-588, September.
    4. Qiuping Chen & Bo Ning & Yue Pan & Jinli Xiao, 2022. "Green finance and outward foreign direct investment: evidence from a quasi-natural experiment of green insurance in China," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 899-924, September.
    5. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2022. "Aid for Trade, export product diversification, and foreign direct investment," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 534-561, February.
    6. Ling Feng & Lulan Ge & Zhiyuan Li & Ching‐Yi Lin, 2022. "Financial development and natural resources: The dynamics of China’s outward FDI," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 739-762, March.
    7. Sarker, Bibhuti & Serieux, John, 2023. "Multilevel determinants of FDI: A regional comparative analysis," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(3).
    8. Munjal, Surender & Varma, Sumati & Bhatnagar, Ankur, 2022. "A comparative analysis of Indian and Chinese FDI into Africa: The role of governance and alliances," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 1018-1033.
    9. Benfratello, Luigi & D’Ambrosio, Anna & Sangrigoli, Alida, 2023. "Foreign Direct Investments in Africa: Are Chinese investors different?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    10. Federico Carril-Caccia & Juliette Milgram Baleix & Jordi Paniagua, 2019. "The foreign direct investment-institution nexus in oil-abundant countries," Working Papers 1903, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    11. Chi Zhang & Ivan T. Kandilov & Mark D. Walker, 2022. "Belt and road initiative and Chinese cross‐border mergers and acquisitions," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(6), pages 1978-1996, June.
    12. Mohamed Elheddad, 2016. "Natural Resources and FDI in GCC Countries," International Journal of Business and Social Research, LAR Center Press, vol. 6(7), pages 12-22, July.
    13. Badar Alam Iqbal & Mohd Nayyer Rahman & Nadia Yusuf, 2018. "Determinants of FDI in India and Sri Lanka," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 53(2), pages 116-123, May.
    14. Kafilah Lola Gold, 2022. "The determinant of Chinese foreign direct investments in oil exporting African countries," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(3), pages 476-490, July.
    15. Wei, Yingqi & Zheng, Nan & Liu, Xiaohui & Lu, Jiangyong, 2014. "Expanding to outward foreign direct investment or not? A multi-dimensional analysis of entry mode transformation of Chinese private exporting firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 356-370.
    16. Shiteng Xu & Jeff Gow & Youzhi Chen & Yahua Zhang & Zhibin Huang, 2019. "The Determinants Of Outward Foreign Direct Investment Strategies Of Chinese Energy Firms," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 64(04), pages 1019-1036, September.
    17. Niti Bhasin & Shilpa Garg, 2020. "Impact of Institutional Environment on Inward FDI: A Case of Select Emerging Market Economies," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 21(5), pages 1279-1301, October.
    18. Fon, Roger & Alon, Ilan, 2022. "Governance, foreign aid, and Chinese foreign direct investment," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113678, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Mina, Wasseem, 2020. "Do GCC market-oriented labor policies encourage inward FDI flows?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    20. Alfalih, Abdullah Abdulmohsen & Bel Hadj, Tarek, 2020. "Foreign direct investment determinants in an oil abundant host country: Short and long-run approach for Saudi Arabia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:22:p:9616-:d:447107. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.