Strategic Partnering with Chinese companies: Hidden motives and treasures
Geert Duysters, Tina Saebi & Qinqin Dong
#2007-034
In this paper we aim to investigate the key drivers of international
alliance formation from the perspective of Chinese companies. Our
results indicate that Chinese companies enter into alliances with
Western companies mainly to get accesses to international markets and to
develop their technological and managerial competences further.
Therefore we can say that Chinese companies particularly value
task-related criteria when selecting Western partners. Nevertheless we
also find that Chinese companies also include 'soft' factors such trust,
compatibility or reputation in their partner selection process. We
therefore conclude that in searching for Western partners, Chinese
companies try to find a combination of 'hard' competencies such as
technology and other resources as well as more 'soft' attributes such as
trust, mutual understanding and commitment.
JEL Codes: F23, L24
Key words: Strategic alliances, China, Innovation, Internationalization
UNU-MERIT Working Papers
ISSN 1871-9872