“一带一路”建设模式研究——基于制度与文化视角

推动“一带一路”建设向高质量发展转变,对学术界提出了新命题,需要对已有建设模式和建设项目进行深入剖析,总结经验和教训,提出对“一带一路”建设具有指导意义的理论知识。以往地理学主要关注企业对外直接投资,而“一带一路”建设项目涉及的范畴要大得多,既包括中国的直接投资,也包括中国提供融资并承建的项目,还包括一些新兴的混合项目。已经进行的“一带一路”建设案例研究表明,中国企业“走出去”比较容易忽视的因素是中国与东道国之间在制度和文化上的差异。利用“制度和文化转向”研究思路来剖析“一带一路”建设项目,总结其建设模式,对于经济地理学的发展以及指导“一带一路”建设都具有重要意义。本文首先简要回顾了“制度和文化转向”出现的背景以及主要研究脉络;而后总结了“一带一路”建设项目的主要形式,提出了基于工程总承包（EPC）、基于特许经营和企业直接投资三大类建设模式;最后借鉴“制度和文化转向”的研究技巧,从“地域嵌入的广度和深度”和“技术及项目的‘破坏性’”两个维度,将“一带一路”建设项目分为变革性项目、支撑性项目、一般性项目和海外经贸合作园区4种类型,用以识别它们的制度和文化敏感性,并举例进行了说明。本文提出的分析框架为进行“一带一路”建设案例研究提供了一个思考方向。

Theorizing the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative: Based on institutional and cultural perspectives

Promoting the construction of the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) towards a new stage of high-quality development raises new subjects for academic research, which demands in-depth study of existing BRI projects, summarizing experiences and lessons and theorizing construction models to guide future development. Research in the field of economic geography focused on outward foreign direct investment (FDI) of Chinese firms, but BRI construction is much broader in scope, consisting of not only FDI projects but also China-financed projects and emerging mixed projects. Case studies of BRI projects have shown that significant cultural and institutional difference between China and host country is the factor that tends to be ignored by Chinese firms in the "going global" efforts. Thus, revisiting the institutional and cultural turn in economic geography and employing its research framework to analyze BRI projects and summarize their construction models may contribute to the development of both economic geography and BRI. This article will first briefly review the background and research trends of the institutional and cultural turn; then summarize three major construction models of BRI projects, namely EPC (Engineering Procurement Construction)-based, concession-based and FDI models; finally draw on the institutional and cultural turn to classify BRI projects according to two indicators of "Breadth and Depth of Territorial Embeddedness" and "Destructive Effects of Technology and Project" into four types, i.e. transformative, supportive and ordinary projects as well as industrial parks. Different institutional and cultural sensitivity can be identified for each type of projects. The preliminary theorization proposed in this article may offer a potential framework for future research on BRI construction.