A study on the spatio-temporal evolutionary characteristics of OFDI in Chinese private enterprises and its influencing factors.

In the context of China's increasing openness to the global market, outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has become an effective strategy for expanding overseas markets, and private enterprises have played a crucial role in driving China's economic development. This study utilizes data from the NK-GERC database of Nankai University to conduct a spatio-temporal analysis of the dynamic changes in OFDI by Chinese private enterprises from 2005 to 2020. The findings indicate that Chinese domestic private enterprises' OFDI exhibits a strong spatial pattern in the eastern regions and a weak one in the western regions. The main active investment regions include the Bohai Rim, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta. Regarding destination countries for OFDI, traditional developed European economies such as Germany and the USA remain popular choices, but countries along the "Belt and Road" have become hotspots for investment. Non-manufacturing industries account for a higher proportion of investments, with private enterprises showing a preference for investing in foreign enterprises in the service sector. From a sustainable development perspective, the study finds that environmental factors play a significant role in the development of Chinese private enterprises. Moreover, the negative impact mechanism of environmental pollution on private enterprises' OFDI varies according to the enterprises' geographical location and time period. The negative effect is more significant in coastal areas and eastern regions compared to central and western regions, with the most significant impact observed from 2011 to 2015, followed by 2005 to 2010, and the weakest impact seen from 2016 to 2019. As China's ecological environment continues to improve, the negative impact of environmental pollution on enterprises gradually decreases, contributing to the improvement of the sustainability of private enterprises.