The Strategic Impact of Executives’ Overseas Study on Enterprises’ Overseas Expansion Under the Background of the Belt and Road Initiative

Abstract

With the in-depth advancement of the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese enterprises have increasingly engaged in overseas expansion activities, and the overseas background of senior management teams has become a crucial factor influencing the effectiveness of enterprises’ transnational operations. This paper first sorts out relevant theories and explores how executives’ overseas experience promotes the innovative performance of enterprises in their participation in the Belt and Road Initiative through their knowledge reserves and international perspectives. The study selects Chinese listed companies participating in the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative from 2013 to 2018 as research samples and conducts empirical tests using quantitative methods. The results show that enterprises’ participation in the Belt and Road construction exerts a positive effect on technological innovation, and executives’ overseas background, especially overseas study experience, can significantly enhance this effect. Further analysis reveals that this enhancing effect is more prominent in state-owned enterprises and is more obvious when external economic policies are stable. Mechanistically, the acquisition of innovative resources and the introduction of talents are two important transmission paths. Finally, corresponding suggestions are put forward from the perspectives of the construction of enterprise senior management teams and government policy support, aiming to help enterprises better enhance their innovation capabilities by relying on the Belt and Road platform.