关键词: 移民网络, 离岸服务外包, 理论机制, 引力模型

Abstract: Since the 1990s, the importance of business and social networks, particularly migrant networks, have been widely recognized as a way to overcome informal barriers to international trade. Migrant networks promote formal and informal connections within international trade and further shape interrelated international networks. Based on this, the paper investigates the factors affecting service offshoring from the perspective of migrant networks and it finds that:(1) migrant networks contribute to reducing the fixed costs due to differences in regulatory policies, while improving the odds of nostalgic trade, which generate demand preference mechanisms; (2) static and dynamic gravity models both show that migrant networks have a significantly positive impact on service offshoring; and (3) in addition to the traditional factors, such as GDP and geographical distance, migrant networks and other control covariates account for 11% of the total variation, of which 33% to 68% is explained by migrant networks. To some extent, this study fills the gap in research studies related to service offshoring from the point of view of migrant networks.

Key words: migrant networks, service offshoring, theoretical mechanisms, gravity model