Research On The Impact Of Cultural Differences On China's OFDI In Countries Along The Belt And Roa

Cultural distance is not a new topic in Outward Foreign Direct Investment field,especially in the context of economic globalization,China’s foreign investment has continued to grow year after year.Since the concept of "One Belt One Road" was proposed in 2013,my country’s investment focus has gradually shifted to countries along the "One Belt One Road" route,and it has become a hot land for China’s foreign direct investment across Europe and Asia,covering five religions,six civilizations,involving with more than 50 official languages.So the cultural diversity is evident.However,the inevitable cultural collision between the two countries will hinder the further development of OFDI.Therefore,only by strengthening exchanges and friendly consultations to narrow the cultural differences and eliminate the cultural prejudice and estrangement between the two countries,the two countries can coexist harmoniously at the cultural level,then trade and other activities are carried out in an orderly and smooth manner,thereby promoting the further development of the "One Belt One Road" construction.At the same time,by narrowing cultural differences,eliminating the prejudice of some host country citizens against China,and fully understanding the host country’s religion,society,folk culture,etc.,"people-to-people bonds" can be promoted,the cultural beliefs and values of other countries can be truly understood,and the superiority of civilization can be abandoned.Therefore,communication can be much smoother,and Chinese enterprises "going out" can be conductive.After reviewing the research of domestic and foreign scholars,it is found that the mainstream research at this stage only studies the impact of cultural differences on OFDI and the impact of overseas Chinese networks on OFDI,and does not organically combine the two.Taking the overseas Chinese network as an intermediary variable,the cultural difference,the overseas Chinese network and the Chinese OFDI are linked together to conduct an empirical analysis.Based on the perspective of cultural differences,this paper uses the panel data of China’s 29 countries along the "One Belt One Road" from 2003 to 2019 to establish an empirical model,and conducts full-sample and sub-sample empirical regression.At the same time,based on previous research,the overseas Chinese network was introduced as an intermediary variable to further explore the relationship between cultural differences and China’s OFDI in countries along the “Belt and Road”.The OFDI of "all the way" countries is negatively correlated,that is,the smaller the cultural distance,the more inclined the enterprises are to invest in OFDI;(2)the impact of cultural differences on different types of countries is also different.For different regions,cultural differences have the most significant impact on West Asia;for different income countries,cultural differences have the greatest impact on lowand middle-income countries;(3)Cultural differences can affect China’s economic growth through the intermediary variable of the overseas Chinese network.OFDI.Finally,this paper puts forward five suggestions:(1)China should strengthen friendly dialogues and exchanges with countries along the “Belt and Road”;(2)China should improve the construction of cultural and other information exchange platforms to narrow the cultural distance;(3)The government should formulate and introduce more convenient trade policies;(4)make full use of the "lubricant" role of overseas Chinese networks.Starting from the national level,this research better demonstrates the importance of countries along the “One Belt One Road”,and expounds how to better promote China’s direct investment in countries along the route,which is of great importance and has realistic meaning to promoting China’s economic development and promoting the “One Belt One Road” construction.