سرمایه گذاری خارجی، ظرفیت نوآوری و بهره وری از محیط زیست در چین

Traditional research discusses the impact of foreign investment on the technology diffusion effect or environment individually. In fact, foreign capital can promote environmental efficiency of the funded region by improving the local innovation capacity through technology diffusion. This article analyzes the path relationship between foreign investment, innovation capacity and environmental efficiency by using structural equation models, the results of which show that, on the one hand, foreign investment can directly promote local environmental efficiency; on the other hand, it is also effective in enhancing local innovation capacity, which is conducive to the improvement in local environmental efficiency. Finally, corresponding countermeasures are put forward in line with the above results.

Since the reform and opening up, especially in the 1990s, due to the deepening of China’s marketization and improvement of the investment environment, foreign investment has increased rapidly, and actually utilized value of foreign investment has increased from US $3.487 billion in 1990 up to US $90.033 billion in 2009. Since 2000, the yearly growth rate of actually utilized value of foreign investment has increased to be at more than 24.57%. On the one hand, the constant influx of foreign capital has provided much-needed capital for China’s economic construction, effective in making up the capital gap; on the other hand, foreign enterprises have brought advanced technology to enhance their own competitive ability, which can improve the technology level of local industry through the demonstration effect and diffusion effect as well. In addition, technological advancement can better environmental efficiency by improving the efficiency of resource utilization and reducing pollution emissions. At present, the majority of scholars have studied the effect of foreign investment on innovation capacity or environment separately; however, they ignore that the constant influx of foreign capital can improve the environmental efficiency through enhancing innovation capacity. Although current research methods vary greatly, structural equation modeling can reflect the causal relationship and effect paths among different elements, making it effective in demonstrating the contribution and effect paths of foreign investment on regional innovation capacity and environmental efficiency. This study will analyze the relationship among foreign capital level, innovation capacity and environmental efficiency in all Chinese provinces, and test the path and contribution level of foreign investment on regional development by using structural equation model, the results of which will provide reference for the future practice of attracting more foreign investment. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 is the literature review; Section 3 is construction of the models based on theoretical analysis; Section 4 includes the data and the results; Section 5 is the conclusion and implication.

Based on the above results, it is noticed that the increase in foreign investment is helpful in improving resource utilization efficiency and reducing pollutant emissions; as a result, the environmental efficiency of production is improved. Additionally, it also improves the innovation capacity of each Chinese province, which will consequently improve the environmental efficiency as well. In future development, in order to make better use of foreign investment in enhancing the regional innovation capacity and environmental efficiency, the following points should be considered: More attention should be paid on introduction of foreign capital, introduction, digestion and absorption of technology. The results show that foreign investment is helpful in improving the regional innovative capacity, with the positive effect coefficient between them. So in the future, China should guide and encourage more joint ventures and foreign-owned enterprises to increase investment in R&D and personnel to promote the development of science and technology. At the same time, China should accelerate the localization of joint ventures and foreign-owned enterprises and strengthen their horizontal and vertical linkages with related industries, making advanced technology and management experience of multinational companies produce a diffusion effect so as to improve the technical level and innovation capacity of the local enterprises. In addition, local enterprises should actively seek cooperation with foreign enterprises, learning advanced experiences and technology from them, especially, paying attention to the introduction and absorption of technology in foreign-invested projects. However, innovation based on the introduction should avoid excessive dependence on foreign technology. China should make full potential of her late-mover advantage and enhance the independent innovation capability through the introduction of technology to narrow its technology gap with developed countries. When introducing foreign capital, managers still need to pay closer attention on the protection of resources and environment in order to improve regional environmental efficiency, where the assessment of environmental impact and the environment standards should be stricter. The standards of resource and environment should be considered from two perspectives: one is the efficiency of resource utilization, especially the utilization efficiency of non-renewable resources; and the other is the negative impact on the environment, i.e. emissions of related pollutants. A good investment environment should be offered to foreign investment through perfecting market, strengthening infrastructure and improving the quality of public service, that is to say, China should attract foreign capital with its soft power instead of simply offering cheap resources and lax environmental regulation. In addition, the introduction of foreign capital should be combined with the adjustment of local structure and industrial upgrade. Foreign capital should be used for promoting the industrial technical level and the efficiency of resource utilization. China should encourage foreign capital to enter the industry with low consumption of resources and little environmental pollution and guide foreign capital to upgrade and alter traditional industry with heavy pollution and huge resource consumption. China should improve the regional innovation capacity to enhance the efficiency of resource and environment continually. The results of empirical analysis show that the promotion of innovation capacity will improve regional environmental efficiency. So China’s government should guide the enterprises to improve the efficiency of resource utilization, extend the industrial chain and realize the recycling of resources through innovation in the future. Firstly, more stringent environmental regulations should be developed, making the enterprises face more pressure on resources and environment, and encouraging enterprises to invest in environmental-friendly technology actively. China should solve the environmental problems by completely using technology instead of by economic sanctions which tend to make the enterprises avoid the resources and environmental issues again and again. Secondly, the government should make appropriate investment or provide certain innovation subsidy. The problems of resources and environment are exterior to a certain degree, with the nature of public goods. It is hard for investment in environmental innovations to bring considerable economic benefits, so government should be involved in compensating for the related losses of the enterprises. Finally, in the selection of innovation project, the enterprises should have long-term vision. Instead of just being concerned about the current market benefit, enterprises should pay more attention to the improvement of utilization efficiency of resources and the reduction of emissions of negative output to achieve both economic and environmental benefits in the long run.