The Pitfalls of Using Foreign Direct Investment Data to Measure Chinese Multinational Enterprise Activity

摘要

The growth of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNE) has stimulated great interest in their outward foreign direct investment (FDI) strategies, particularly among academics in business and management studies. To date, however, serious methodological shortcomings plague empirical studies in these disciplines. Specifically, the vital issue of how Chinese MNEs use and route FDI via tax havens and offshore financial centres is not adequately dealt with. These practices have created large geographical, industrial composition and volume biases in Chinese outward FDI data. Using a sample of 100 Chinese MNEs, we illustrate how the use of tax havens and offshore financial centres has created these biases, and examine the implications for understanding Chinese MNE activity.%近年来，中国跨国公司的快速成长引起了外界对其对外直接投资战略的广泛关注，这一关注在商务学及管理学两个研究领域尤为突出。然而，目前在这两个学科领域进行的实证研究中普遍缺乏严谨的方法论作为支撑,尤其是中国跨国公司对外直接投资流向避税港和离岸金融中心一关键课题被普遍忽略。笔者认为,目前学术研究中广泛采用的中国对外直接投资数据在地理位置、行业结构以及规模上均存在较大偏差。因此，本文以100家中国跨国公司为样本，详细解读对外直接投资相关数据如何因涉及避税港及离岸金融中心而产生偏差,从而加深对中国跨国公司活动及其影响的理解。