Can FDI Promote the Servitization Transformation of Enterprises?——Theory and empirical evidence from China

Amid growing environmental complexity and the pressing need for servitization transformation in manufacturing, this study investigates how foreign investment drives this transformation. Leveraging China’s substantial stock of FDI and its gradual market liberalization, this study examines the effect of foreign investment on the servitization of manufacturing enterprises using the difference-in-differences approach and the 2002 edition of the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries as a quasi-natural experiment. Results confirm that foreign investment significantly promotes servitization transformation, a finding robust to parallel trend and placebo tests. Mechanism and heterogeneity analyses reveal that spillover and competitive effects underlie this impact, which is stronger in human capital-rich firms, capital-intensive industries, and highly marketized regions. Furthermore, FDI accelerates advanced servitization and upgrades traditional services via modern service integration. These findings offer policy insights for enhancing global value chain participation and industrial modernization through openness and resource integration.

面对日益复杂的外部环境与制造业服务化转型的迫切需求，本研究聚焦外商投资对制造业服务化转型的驱动作用。本研究依托中国庞大的外商直接投资（Foreign Direct Investment, FDI）存量与渐进式市场开放进程，以2002年版《外商投资产业指导目录》作为准自然实验，采用双重差分法检验外商投资对制造企业服务化水平的影响效应。研究结果表明，外商投资可显著推动制造企业的服务化转型，该结论通过平行趋势检验与安慰剂检验，稳健性良好。机制与异质性分析显示，技术溢出效应与市场竞争效应是外商投资发挥促进作用的核心路径；且该促进效应在人力资本充裕的企业、资本密集型行业以及市场发育程度较高的地区中更为显著。此外，FDI还可通过现代服务融合，加速高端服务化转型并推动传统服务业态升级。本研究结论可为通过扩大开放与资源整合，提升全球价值链参与度与产业现代化水平提供政策启示。