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The purpose of this study is to examine the role of push and pull factors that have influenced China’s outward foreign direct investment (COFDI) in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries. The sample of BRI countries is divided according to three geographical regions representing Europe, MENA, and Asia for better understanding of the main factors that influence the COFDI across the respective regions. This study supports Dunning’s FDI theory in modeling the determinants of COFDI in BRI economies by focusing on the role of push and pull factors. This present study also extends and improves the existing research by considering the new factors, new methodology, and splitting the sample BRI economies. Thus, a static, dynamic panel and quantile regression technique was employed to model COFDI determinants for 50 BRI countries from 2005 to 2016. The main findings revealed that China’s minimum wage policy, including the host countries’ natural resources, labor cost, and institutional factors were the key determinants influencing COFDI. However, some determinants such as the host countries’ gross domestic product, total patents, trade openness, and inflation rate did not significantly influence COFDI. By splitting the sample according to the respective regions, the results revealed that only the minimum wage policy significantly influenced COFDI in the European region. In comparison, natural resources, gross domestic product, and minimum wage policy were statistically significant for the MENA region. In the Asian region, minimum wage policy, government index, and trade openness were proven essential for COFDI. The policy implications from this study suggest that MNCs from China need to strategize their location for investment in BRI economies. In complement, the BRI recipient countries need to show their advantage and strength in attracting more FDI from China. BRI economies and China MNCs can also be leveraged through understanding how strong the push and pull factors are exerting on outward investment from China. First published online 30 March 2022

BACKGROUND ‘Kedondong’ fruit is regarded as an exotic fruit that is gaining popularity due to its deliciousness and pleasant flavour. However, this fruit has a short shelf life, leading to problems with postharvest loss. In order to prevent losses, the fruit could be produced as a value-added product. In this study, the ‘kedondong’ fruit was preserved by drying into powder using different drying methods. METHODS The kedondong powder was dried using five methods: convection oven drying, vacuum drying, spray drying, drum drying and freeze drying. The physical properties, flowability and DPPH radical scavenging ability of dried kedondong powder were examined. RESULTS Spray-dried powder provided the significantly (p ≤ 0.05) highest process yield, which was 54.93%. All the powder produced had a low moisture content (3.03 to 5.66%) and water activity (0.19–0.37). Visually, whitish and fine powders were observed on spray-dried and freeze-dried samples, while convection oven-dried and vacuum-dried powder appeared yellowish and coarse. The pH of the reconstituted powders varied from 2.71 to 2.83, where drum-dried powder was the most acidic. Spray-dried powder showed the highest wettability and shortest dissolution time, which was 172.65 s and 10.55 s, respectively. With the exception of drum-dried powder, all the dried powders were classified as non-caking powders. The bulk and tapped density of the powders ranged from 0.32 to 0.70 g/mL and 0.38 to 0.86 g/mL, respectively. Vacuum-dried powder had very good flowability, convection oven-dried and drum-dried powder had good flowability, while spray-dried and drum-dried powder had fair flowability. Antioxidant assay showed that freeze-dried powder exhibited the highest free radical scavenging activity (IC50 = 701.29 μg/mL). CONCLUSIONS This study indicates that spray-dried kedondong powder has great potential in the food industry due to its high process yield and better powder quality. Meanwhile, freeze drying best preserved the antioxidant properties of the powder, which could potentially be used as a functional ingredient as a result. This study is important for the fruit processing industry as it offers an alternative for the farmer to produce kedondong fruit powder because the fruit has a short shelf life. Converting the fruit into powder can diversify the resulting produce into different applications, such as fruit juice, beverages, jam and other food products.