"A retrospective and agenda for future research on Chinese outward foreign direct investment."

The authors’ original 2007 Journal of International Business Studies article, “The Determinants of Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment,” was the first theoretically based empirical analysis of the phenomenon. It utilized internalization theory to explain the internationalization of Chinese state-owned enterprises. This paper showed that the authors’ had failed to ask sufficiently challenging questions about the effects of home country institutions on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). This retrospective builds on the extensive subsequent research to show the importance of context in constructing satisfactory theoretical explanations of OFDI. Building on these foundations, the authors propose research challenges for the next decade on Chinese OFDI that transcend the Chinese context and have wider theoretical applicability. Examining alternative forms of social and economic organization allows the creation of special theories of foreign direct investment nested within the general theory. Following such a strategy would enable International Business research to make a contribution across the social sciences.

This piece originally appeared as Buckley, Peter J., Jeremy Clegg, Hinrich Voss, Adam R. Cross, Xin Liu, and Ping Zheng, "A retrospective and agenda for future research on Chinese outward foreign direct investment," Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 49, No. 1 (2018), pp. 4-23.