Release time:2025-11-04  Hits:

• Impact Factor:4.362
• DOI number:10.13580/j.cnki.fstc.2025.04.015
• Journal:Forum on Science and Technology in China
• Key Words:multinational corporations; research versus development; overseas investment; spatial and temporal patterns; location choice
• Abstract:As a rapidly emerging economic power, China has become a hot-bed of investment for multinational corporations (MNCs) to conduct overseas R&D activities. This paper uses the fDi Markets database to analyze the differentiation of spatiotemporal evolution and location choice of MNCs’ R&D investment in China from 2003 to 2022 by distinguishing between research and development and using GIS spatial method and statistical models. The main findings are as follows. (1) The overall evolution of MNCs’ R&D investment in China from 2003 to 2022 is non-linear and unstable, and has the characteristics of stage development, among which research investment accounts for a relatively low proportion, while development investment always occupies a dominant position. (2) MNCs’ R&D investment in China is dominated by a few industry clusters such as ICT & electronics, life sciences and transport equipment, with obvious changes in industrial structure, among which the industrial concentration of development investment is higher than that of research investment. (3) Source cities of MNCs’ R&D investment in China is relatively concentrated. Destination cities mainly distribute in the eastern region with Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta as the core, and there is a trend of scattering to a few cities in the central and western and northeastern regions, generally forming a northeast-southwest spatial pattern, among which the spatial evolution characteristics of research investment and development investment differ significantly. (4) Technology and knowledge innovation capability are the primary factors influencing the location choice of MNCs’ research investment in China, while the level of market scale is stronger attracting investments in development activities. Meanwhile, economic development, industrial structure, foreign investment scale and other city attributes also have certain influence on MNCs’ R&D investment in China.
• Note:扬州大学人文社会科学四级期刊
• Co-author:Huang Xiaodong
• First Author:Li Tingzhu
• Indexed by:Research Atricle
• Correspondence Author:Du Debin
• Discipline:Management Science
• First-Level Discipline:Business Administration
• Document Type:CSSCI
• Issue:4
• Page Number:96-105
• ISSN No.:1002-6711
• Translation or Not:no
• CN No.:11-1344/G3
• Date of Publication:2025-04-05