Building Modern Bridges Between Countries: A Literature Review on Chinese Foreign Investments in the Transportation Sector
Building Modern Bridges Between Countries: A Literature Review on Chinese Foreign Investments in the Transportation Sector

Summary/Abstract: For several decades China has been engaging in investment activities abroad, establishing itself as the world’s leading manufacturing hub. The global presence of Chinese construction companies – predominantly state-owned enterprises (SOEs) – is well documented, with notable activities in almost every region of the world. The country is establishing numerous new cross-border and transcontinental connections via land and sea routes in conjunction with developing logistics infrastructure and upgrading existing facilities. This article offers a comprehensive analysis of the extant literature on Chinese foreign investment in logistics and transport, based on 30 selected peer-reviewed articles from academic journals. The objective of this analysis is twofold: firstly, to synthesise the extant literature in this field, and thereby establish the current state of research; and secondly, to identify research gaps in the area of Chinese logistics foreign investment, thus enabling an objective selection of the research subjects requiring deeper analysis. The research method employed is a systematic literature review conducted within a Reasons-Implementation-Outcomes (RIO) framework (a modified Antecedents-Decisions-Outcomes (ADO) framework). The results of the study demonstrate that overseas Chinese investment in the transport sector is analysed from a variety of perspectives. In many publications it is emphasised that Chinese investment activities differ significantly from the actions of other companies (and countries) in terms of political, financial and organisational aspects. The results of China’s initiatives have mostly been assessed only preliminarily, many unanswered questions have been raised, and potential risks have been discussed. Consequently, there is a broad scope for further exploration of this subject.

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