The Internationalization Strategy of the Chinese Companies:
a Case Study Analysis


Author: Adele PARMENTOLA
Published in: Vol:8 No.3 / 2007

      In the last years the rate of outward FDI growth by companies from emerging markets has outpaced that growth by companies from the industrialized countries. Nevertheless only few scholars in the past tried to explain the rising of the Third World Multinationals but they interpreted this phenomenon using the traditional approaches to internationalization, that are not able to explain the real motivations that induce the firms coming from emerging countries to go abroad. According to this aim of this paper is to identify the determinants that induce the Chinese multinationals to realize FDI and the characteristics that distinguish their internationalization strategy by the strategy adopted by developed countries multinationals. Starting from the analysis of existing literature, it has been defined a theoretical model that identifies different types of internationalization strategy using two variables: the motivations that induce the companies to exit the home countries and the motivations that induce the companies to enter into a specific foreign market. Then this theoretical model is used to explain, through a confirmative cases study analysis, the international strategy of six Chinese multinationals in the Communication Equipment industry.