OFDI and Global Value Chain Reconstruction under the Belt and Road Initiative

The global industrial structure is accelerating its transformation, and global value chains are being restructured under the differentiation of trade systems and investment. This paper discusses the impact of OFDI on GVC restructuring under the Belt and Road initiative, aiming to analyze the resource reallocation of Chinese enterprises in the global market and its role in value chain upgrading. This paper finds that OFDI can significantly increase the degree of GVC embeddedness of enterprises, in which technological innovation, vertical integration adjustment, specialization and industrial chain integration are important mechanisms affecting the upgrading of GVC. The moderating effect of Belt and Road is weakly negatively correlated, but the trade facilitation, digital infrastructure improvement and financial support it promotes provide long-term development momentum for enterprise GVC embeddedness. Meanwhile, private firms, manufacturing firms, and non-asset-intensive firms are more likely to benefit from OFDI and enhance GVC embeddedness.