A Bibliography Study of Outward Foreign Direct Investment

Abstract

Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) is an effective investment tool because it can explore new markets, acquire resources, earn profits, and enhance competitiveness. Based on a sample of 1048 articles from the WoS, this study adopts bibliometric methods to analyze the research in this field in the last decade to have a systematic view of the development of OFDI in recent years. The results of this study show the volume of publications by individual authors is low, and the collaboration among prolific authors is higher. Although China published the largest quantity of articles in the past ten years, the impact of the research is lower than that of developed countries such as Germany, Canada, Italy, etc. Green technology innovation and the Belt and Road tend to be the hotspots in this field. Future research in outward foreign direct investment will emphasize environment and sustainability as well as investing in emerging markets.