IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i16p6746-d1451406.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Outward Foreign Direct Investment and Supply Chain Concentration: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Hao Jing

    (Business School, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China)

  • Weiwei Zhan

    (School of Economics and Management, Hefei University, Hefei 230601, China)

Abstract

The potential risks arising from excessive supply chain concentration have received more and more attention. In practice, high supply chain concentration hinders firms’ sustainable development, especially for firms in emerging markets. However, how to reduce supply chain concentration remains an underexplored problem. Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has been an important strategy for firms to reallocate and optimize their supply chain relationships. Thus, we tried to explore whether OFDI can serve as an effective method to reduce supply chain concentration by analyzing their relationship. Using the data of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2022, this paper empirically examines the impact of OFDI on supply chain concentration through a two-way fixed-effects model. We find that OFDI significantly reduces supply chain concentration, and this conclusion still holds after using alternative measures of the independent variable and dependent variable, endogeneity treatment, the Heckman two-stage model test, controlling for provincial factors, and excluding special samples. Channel analysis reveals that OFDI reduces supply chain concentration mainly through increasing market share, enhancing innovation capacity, and improving reputation. Cross-sectional analysis shows that the negative effect of OFDI on supply chain concentration is more pronounced in state-owned firms, firms under high industry competition, and high-tech firms. Our findings have important implications for firms to build sustainable supply chain relationships and strengthen supply chain resilience, and for policymakers to guide OFDI reasonably. Future research could further explore the effect of firms’ investment decisions on supply chain configuration.

Suggested Citation

  • Hao Jing & Weiwei Zhan, 2024. "Outward Foreign Direct Investment and Supply Chain Concentration: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-20, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:6746-:d:1451406
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/6746/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/6746/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Huang, Henry He & Lobo, Gerald J. & Wang, Chong & Xie, Hong, 2016. "Customer concentration and corporate tax avoidance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 184-200.
    2. Wu, Chong & Barnes, David, 2010. "Formulating partner selection criteria for agile supply chains: A Dempster-Shafer belief acceptability optimisation approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 284-293, June.
    3. Harvey, Michael G. & Lusch, Robert F., 1995. "A systematic assessment of potential international strategic alliance partners," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 195-212, June.
    4. Arthur Lewbel, 1997. "Constructing Instruments for Regressions with Measurement Error when no Additional Data are Available, with an Application to Patents and R&D," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(5), pages 1201-1214, September.
    5. Zhang, Da & Wang, Yuxia, 2024. "Can management tone predict the firm's decision on supply chain configuration?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PB).
    6. Liu, Haiyue & Wang, Yile & Huang, Ling & Zhang, Xueyong, 2021. "Outward FDI and stock price crash risk---Evidence from China," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    7. Larkin, Yelena, 2021. "Reliance on major customers and product market competition," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    8. Ma, Xiaofang & Wang, Wenming & Wu, Jiangang & Zhang, Wenlan, 2020. "Corporate customer concentration and stock price crash risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    9. 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.
    10. Hao Chen & Jiadong Pan & Wen Xiao, 2020. "Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment and Industrial Upgrading from the Perspective of Differences among Countries," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 28(3), pages 1-28, May.
    11. Hertzel, Michael G. & Li, Zhi & Officer, Micah S. & Rodgers, Kimberly J., 2008. "Inter-firm linkages and the wealth effects of financial distress along the supply chain," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 374-387, February.
    12. Zhoufu Yan & Shuntian Sui & Fangwei Wu & Li Cao, 2023. "The Impact of Outward Foreign Direct Investment on Product Quality and Export: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-13, February.
    13. Qian, Xianhang & Qiu, Shanyun & Zhao, Kunzhu, 2023. "Foreign residency rights and corporate supplier concentration: Evidence from China," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    14. Cozza, C. & Rabellotti, R. & Sanfilippo, M., 2015. "The impact of outward FDI on the performance of Chinese firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 42-57.
    15. Zhang, Bing-bing & Wang, Yuan & Chen, Yue & Zhou, Junting, 2024. "Digital transformation by firms and the cleanliness of China's export products," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Mu-Shu Yun & Lee-Young Cheng & Yan Zhao, 2023. "Customer concentration and target price accuracy," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 995-1028, October.
    2. Haiyue Liu & Zhimin Yi & Hua Shang & Zihan Liu, 2024. "Foreign bank entry and the outward foreign direct investment of companies: evidence from China," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(7), pages 896-913, September.
    3. Chatjuthamard, Pattanaporn & Jiraporn, Pornsit & Lee, Sang Mook & Sarajoti, Pattarake, 2024. "Customer concentration, managerial risk aversion, and hostile takeover threats," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 268-279.
    4. Li, Linjie & Liu, Xiaming & Yuan, Dong & Yu, Miaojie, 2017. "Does outward FDI generate higher productivity for emerging economy MNEs? – Micro-level evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 839-854.
    5. Hua Zhang & Qiwang Zhang, 2023. "How Does Digital Transformation Facilitate Enterprise Total Factor Productivity? The Multiple Mediators of Supplier Concentration and Customer Concentration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-18, January.
    6. Ren, Siyu & Hao, Yu & Wu, Haitao, 2022. "The role of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on green total factor energy efficiency: Does institutional quality matters? Evidence from China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    7. Mahla Afghahi & Farzaneh Nassirzadeh & Davood Askarany, 2024. "Exploring the impact of customer concentration on stock price crash risk," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    8. Li, Lei & Luo, Changtuo, 2023. "Does administrative decentralization promote outward foreign direct investment and productivity? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    9. Chatjuthamard, Pattanaporn & Kijkasiwat, Ploypailin & Jiraporn, Pornsit & Lee, Sang Mook, 2023. "Customer concentration, managerial risk aversion, and independent directors: A quasi-natural experiment," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 358-368.
    10. Liu, Yuli & Ge, Yuejing & Hu, Zhiding & Wang, Shufang, 2018. "Culture and capital flows—Exploring the spatial differentiation of China's OFDI," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 27-45.
    11. Lian, Yili, 2024. "Financial distress, bank branching deregulation, and customer-supplier relationships," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    12. Cui, Lin & Gao, Qiuling & Guo, Jinyu & Ma, Pengcheng, 2022. "OFDI performance of EMNEs: A review and recommendations for future research," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(3).
    13. Howell, Anthony & Lin, Jia & Worack, Stephan, 2020. "Going out to innovate more at home: Impacts of outward direct investments on Chinese firms' domestic innovation performance," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    14. Fei Nie & Jian Li & Xiaoli Etienne & Gucheng Li, 2023. "Impact of Outward Foreign Direct Investment on Chinese Manufacturing Firms' Financialization and Servitization," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 31(2), pages 112-136, March.
    15. Zhu, Minghao & Yeung, Andy C.L. & Zhou, Honggeng, 2021. "Diversify or concentrate: The impact of customer concentration on corporate social responsibility," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    16. Wen, Wen & Ke, Yun & Liu, Xuejiao, 2021. "Customer concentration and corporate social responsibility performance: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    17. Huang, Yichu & Fan, Yaoyao, 2022. "Risk along the supply chain: Geographic proximity and corporate risk taking," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    18. Chen, Lili & Guo, Shaoyu & Lu, Jian & Gerschewski, Stephan, 2021. "Outward FDI and efficiency in within-firm resource allocation – Evidence from firm-level data of China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    19. Zhang, Da & Wang, Yuxia, 2024. "Can management tone predict the firm's decision on supply chain configuration?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PB).
    20. Shiang Liu & Mingming Qiu & Shiyi Zhang, 2022. "Customer Concentration and Corporate Real Estate Holdings," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 492-523, October.

    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:16:y:2024:i:16:p:6746-:d:1451406. 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.