IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unm/unumer/2009041.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Internationalization of Chinese firms in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Ying

    (UNU-MERIT)

  • Filippov, Sergey

    (UNU-MERIT)

Abstract

Since end of the 1990s, the world has been witnessing a phenomenon of internationalisation of Chinese companies. This internationalisation is often understood through FDI inflows, whereby multinational companies establish their presence in a form of subsidiaries overseas. However, lately many companies (and Chinese firms in particular) started to use strategic alliances and M&As as a pair of tools of internationalisation. Despite the growing body of literature on this topic in the context of advanced western economies, use of strategic alliances in the internationalisation of Chinese firms remains an under-researched topic. In the paper we investigate the potential benefits for Chinese companies to internationalise through strategic alliances and M&As, and specifically in comparison to the traditional forms of outward FDI. By using the data from Thomson SDC database, we specifically focus on the Single European market as a new prospective location for Chinese companies and provide a quantitative overview of Chinese firms' alliances as well as M&As in Europe. To illustrate the optimal pattern of internalisation of Chinese firms in Europe, we additionally use a case study of Chinese automotive manufacturer Chery Automobile Co. Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Ying & Filippov, Sergey, 2009. "Internationalization of Chinese firms in Europe," MERIT Working Papers 2009-041, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    • Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2009041
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2009/wp2009-041.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter J. Buckley & Mark Casson, 1991. "The Future of the Multinational Enterprise," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, edition 0, number 978-1-349-21204-0, September.
    2. V.N. Balasubramanyam & David Greenaway, 1992. "Economic Integration and Foreign Direct Investment: Japanese Investment in the EC," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 175-194, June.
    3. Balakrishnan, Srinivasan & Koza, Mitchell P., 1993. "Information asymmetry, adverse selection and joint-ventures : Theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 99-117, January.
    4. John H. Dunning, 1977. "Trade, Location of Economic Activity and the MNE: A Search for an Eclectic Approach," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Bertil Ohlin & Per-Ove Hesselborn & Per Magnus Wijkman (ed.), The International Allocation of Economic Activity, chapter 12, pages 395-418, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Peter J Buckley & L Jeremy Clegg & Adam R Cross & Xin Liu & Hinrich Voss & Ping Zheng, 2007. "The determinants of Chinese outward foreign direct investment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(4), pages 499-518, July.
    6. Duysters, Geert & Saebi, Tina & Dong, Qinqin, 2007. "Strategic Partnering with Chinese Companies: Hidden Motives and Treasures," MERIT Working Papers 2007-034, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    7. Gabriel R. G. Benito & Rajneesh Narula (ed.), 2007. "Multinationals on the Periphery," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-59304-6, September.
    8. Filippov, Sergey & Saebi, Tina, 2008. "Europeanisation Strategy of Chinese Companies: Its Perils and Promises," MERIT Working Papers 2008-055, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Geert Duysters & Jojo Jacob & Charmianne Lemmens & Yu Jintian, 2009. "Internationalization and technological catching up of emerging multinationals: a comparative case study of China's Haier group," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 18(2), pages 325-349, April.
    10. Christian Milelli & Françoise Hay & Yunnan Shi, 2009. "Chinese firms enter Europe : some empirical evidence," Post-Print halshs-00421377, HAL.
    11. Blomstrom, Magnus & Kokko, Ari, 1998. "Multinational Corporations and Spillovers," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 247-277, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alessia Amighini & Claudio Cozza & Roberta Rabellotti & Marco Sanfilippo, 2014. "Investigating Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investments: How Can Firm-level Data Help?," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 22(6), pages 44-63, November.
    2. ZhongXiang Zhang, 2012. "Climate Change Meets Trade in Promoting Green Growth: Potential Conflicts and Synergies," Chapters, in: Chin Hee Hahn & Sang-Hyop Lee & Kyoung-Soo Yoon (ed.), Responding to Climate Change, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Vito Amendolagine & Claudio Cozza & Roberta Rabellotti, 2015. "Chinese and Indian Multinationals: A Firm-Level Analysis of their Investments in Europe," Global Economic Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 452-469, December.
    4. Zhaoxin Dai & Yunfeng Hu & Guanhua Zhao, 2017. "The Suitability of Different Nighttime Light Data for GDP Estimation at Different Spatial Scales and Regional Levels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-15, February.
    5. Wade Jacoby, 2014. "Different cases, different faces: Chinese investment in Central and Eastern Europe," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 199-214, March.
    6. Pareja-Alcaraz, Pablo, 2017. "Chinese investments in Southern Europe's energy sectors: Similarities and divergences in China's strategies in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 700-710.
    7. Zhang, Ying & Duysters, Geert, 2010. "Entrepreneurship Development and the Role of Economic Transition in Entrepreneurial Activities in China," MERIT Working Papers 2010-036, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    8. Amighini, Alessia & Cozza, Claudio & Rabellotti, Roberta & Sanfilippo, Marco, 2014. "An analysis of Chinese outward FDIs in Europe with firm-level data," Papers in Innovation Studies 2014/2, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    9. Christian Dreger & Yun Schüler-Zhou & Margot Schüller, 2017. "Determinants of Chinese direct investments in the European Union," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(42), pages 4231-4240, September.
    10. Alessia Amighini & Roberta Rabellotti & Marco Sanfilippo, 2013. "China's Outward FDI: An Industry-Level Analysis of Host-Country Determinants," Frontiers of Economics in China-Selected Publications from Chinese Universities, Higher Education Press, vol. 8(3), pages 309-336, September.
    11. Giuliani, Elisa & Gorgoni, Sara & Günther, Christina & Rabellotti, Roberta, 2014. "Emerging versus advanced country MNEs investing in Europe: A typology of subsidiary global–local connections," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 680-691.
    12. Fodouop Kouam Arthur William, 2024. "Navigating the Relocation Trend: The Rising Shift of Multinational Corporations from China to Other Countries," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 34(1), pages 62-75.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christian Milelli & Françoise Hay, 2008. "Chinese and Indian firms’ entry into Europe: characteristics, impacts and policy implications," Working Papers hal-04140718, HAL.
    2. Gammeltoft, Peter & Cuervo-Cazurra, Alvaro, 2021. "Enriching internationalization process theory: insights from the study of emerging market multinationals," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(3).
    3. Chris Wagner, 2020. "Deducing a state-of-the-art presentation of the Eclectic Paradigm from four decades of development: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(1), pages 51-96, February.
    4. Liu, Yuli & Ge, Yuejing & Hu, Zhiding & Wang, Shufang, 2018. "Culture and capital flows—Exploring the spatial differentiation of China's OFDI," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 27-45.
    5. Xie, En & Reddy, K.S. & Liang, Jie, 2017. "Country-specific determinants of cross-border mergers and acquisitions: A comprehensive review and future research directions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 127-183.
    6. Masron, Tajul Ariffin, 2013. "Promoting intra-ASEAN FDI: The role of AFTA and AIA," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 43-48.
    7. Cleeve, Emmanuel A. & Debrah, Yaw & Yiheyis, Zelealem, 2015. "Human Capital and FDI Inflow: An Assessment of the African Case," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-14.
    8. Buckley, Peter J. & Hashai, Niron, 2014. "The role of technological catch up and domestic market growth in the genesis of emerging country based multinationals," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 423-437.
    9. Grazia Ietto-Gillies, 2011. "The Integration and Fragmentation Roles of Transnational Companies," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume III, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Cuervo-Cazurra, Alvaro & Pananond, Pavida, 2023. "The rise of emerging market lead firms in global value chains," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    11. Filippov, Sergey & Saebi, Tina, 2008. "Europeanisation Strategy of Chinese Companies: Its Perils and Promises," MERIT Working Papers 2008-055, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    12. Benfratello, Luigi & D’Ambrosio, Anna & Sangrigoli, Alida, 2023. "Foreign Direct Investments in Africa: Are Chinese investors different?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    13. Michael Nippa & Jeffrey J Reuer, 2019. "On the future of international joint venture research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(4), pages 555-597, June.
    14. Filippov, Sergey, 2008. "Russia's emerging multinationals: trends and issues," MERIT Working Papers 2008-062, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    15. Blomstrom, Magnus & Kokko, Ari, 1997. "Regional integration and foreign direct investment : a conceptual framework and three cases," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1750, The World Bank.
    16. Ilgaz Arikan & Asli M. Arikan & Oded Shenkar, 2022. "Revisiting emerging market multinational enterprise views: The Goldilocks story restated," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(4), pages 781-802, June.
    17. Filippov, Sergey, 2012. "European investment promotion agencies vis-à-vis multinational companies from emerging economies: Comparative analysis of BRIC investor targeting," MERIT Working Papers 2012-076, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    18. Blomström, Magnus & Kokko, Ari, 1997. "Regional Integration and Foreign Direct Investment," CEPR Discussion Papers 1659, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Fiorenza Belussi & Giulia Rudello & Maria Savarese, 2016. "The Internationalization Of Mnes From And To Brics Countries: The Case Of The Industrial Machinery Industry," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0205, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    20. Ramírez-Alesón, Marisa & Fleta-Asín, Jorge, 2016. "Is the Importance of Location Factors Different Depending on the Degree of Development of the Country?," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 29-43.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    strategic alliances; emerging economies; China; Europe; internationalisation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • M10 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - General
    • L62 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Automobiles; Other Transportation Equipment; Related Parts and Equipment
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2009041. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ad Notten (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/meritnl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.