Abstract Based on matched data from the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database, the Customs Import and Export Database and the Directory of Outward Investment Enterprises, this study examines the mechanisms and effects of firms’ OFDI on the quality of domestic export products. The results indicate that OFDI significantly promotes the improvement of export product quality, and this effect exhibits a dynamic lag characteristic, displaying a nonlinear pattern of “ initially rising, then declining, and rising again.” The promoting effect is most pronounced with a five-year lag. Mechanism tests reveals that OFDI promotes export product quality mainly through the innovation promotion effect, the value chain embedding deepening effect and the intermediate goods import expansion effect, while the mediating role of the industrial agglomeration effect in enhancing export product quality is relatively weaker. Heterogeneity analysis shows that, compared to corresponding samples, the effect of OFDI in enhancing export product quality is more pronounced in technology-seeking firms, firms in growth and maturity stages, private enterprises, Sino-foreign joint ventures and capital-intensive firms. Further research finds that the higher the productivity of enterprises, the more pronounced the effect of OFDI on improving export product quality. The study provides empirical evidence and decision-making reference for China to optimize its OFDI layout to achieve “ high-quality growth ” in exports.
LIU Yuwei,WANG Hongqing. Research on the Mechanisms through which OFDI Enhances the Export Product Quality of Domestic Enterprises. Economic Survey, 2026, 43(1): 086.
2026, Vol. 43 
