本文應用批判實在主義的研究取徑以探尋近二十年來我國對外投資的根本原因。由於我國經濟與國際分工體系息息相關，本文認為全球商品鏈是控管台灣該階段對外投資的結構，而且由此衍生出來的因果機制，亦即：後福特主義的盛行、經濟全球化的盛行、我國生產環境之惡化等即是將台商推至海外的根本原因。缺少其中的任何一項，被研究事件是很難生起的，而且在這三項因果機制同時作用下，我國對外投資之形成自屬理所當然之事。有異於主流經濟學集中在事件表面的分析，亦即建立事件間之固定關聯，本文探討事件深層的控管結構與因果機制，因此是一實質性分析；另外，研究結論對事件及其具有的重要特質提供可理解的說明，因此是一個高效力的解釋理論。

By using the critical realist approach, this paper uncovers the root causes of Taiwan's massive outward investment in the 1987- present. As Taiwan's economy was highly integrated into the world trade system in this period, this paper takes the global commodity chains as the governing structure of the studied event. The entailed causal mechanisms, such as the post Fordism, economic globalization, and the deterioration of local productive environment are found the root causes that are responsible for the arising of the studied event. A lack of any of these makes the event hard to occur, and the arising of the event becomes inevitable with the influx of these forces. Unlike the empiricism (or mainstream economics) that focuses on facial examination by setting up event regularities among variables, this paper takes 'the why question' approach to explore the underlying governing structure and the ultimately generative forces of the studied event. The established theory is efficacious because, rather than been a formal one, it is a real analysis that centers on the real domain that is able to account for the major features of the studied event.