Heiner Depner / Harald Bathelt: Interaktionen in interkulturellen
Unternehmensbeziehungen. Horizontale und vertikale Vernetzungsoptionen
deutscher Automobilzulieferer in China
Interaction in Intercultural
Context. Networking Potentials of German Firms in China
In
this article, Chinese-German industrial relationships in the automotive
industry in Shanghai are analysed to show how firms, which undertake foreign
direct investments, act in technological and institutional settings which are
different from those in their home country. Differing national standards are
seen as a result of path development processes which take place in national
innovation systems. This leads us to hypothesise that interaction between
individual and collective actors from different systems is subject to barriers
and misunderstandings. This hypothesis was investigated by conducting personal
interviews with managers and experts in the Shanghai automotive industry. In
addition, German managers in Chinese-German joint ventures were
observed over several days to gain insights into the nature of interaction in
these multinational contexts. Aside from identifying potential problems in
interaction, we were also interested in investigating problem-solving
strategies. Our research shows that, with increasing complexity of production,
German customers tended to replace Chinese suppliers by imports or other
suppliers. The reason for this was that technological and organizational
upgrading of these suppliers was viewed as being too costly. Day-to-day operations
of the joint ventures investigated often suffered from the fact that
individuals from both sides did not adapt each others habits of interaction. In
our study, only few âboundary spannersÔ were able to bridge cultural
differences effectively and act powerful in intercultural settings.
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