Chinese multinational corporations in Germany: institutional proximity, local cooperation, and knowledge sharing

2006年，联合国贸易和发展会议（UNCTAD）将来自发达经济体新兴市场的跨国企业（新兴跨国公司或E-MNE）的投资增加确定为全球发展的一个主要趋势。文献表明，电子跨国公司显着不同的跨国公司从发达国家的投资动机，国际化战略和位置的决定。有证据表明，电子跨国公司在发达国家投资的目的是获得战略资源，如技术、市场和供应商网络。电子跨国公司由于其动态发展、资源禀赋差异和新的区位战略而成为经济地理学家关注的一个重要课题。这是拟议的研究项目的目的是检查来自中国的电子跨国公司，最相关的原产国为德国，关于制度距离，公众的看法，以及合作和知识转移的组织的作用。通过选择中国作为对德国的投资来源，该项目与概念性文献（例如关于制度和认知距离的文献）相联系，并采用了比较研究设计。到目前为止，关于中国在德国投资范围的系统信息尚不存在。因此，在项目的第一部分，将通过数据库分析和专家访谈来确定中国在德国的子公司。该项目的主要实证部分包括对中国子公司（多个知情人方法），合作公司（供应商，客户，竞争对手）和行业专家的定性访谈。

The increase in investments of multinational enterprises from emerging markets in developed economies (emerging multinationals or E-MNEs) has been identified as a major trend in global development by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 2006. The literature indicates that E-MNEs differ markedly from MNEs from developed countries with regard to investment motives, internationalization strategies, and location decisions. There is evidence that E-MNEs invest in developed countries with the aim to get access to strategic resources such as technology, markets, and supplier networks. E-MNEs have become a relevant topic for economic geographers because of their dynamic development, differences in terms of resource endowment and new location strategies. It is the aim of the proposed research project to examine E-MNEs from China, the most relevant country of origin for Germany, with regard to the role of institutional distance, public perception, and the organization of cooperation and knowledge transfer. By choosing China as a source of investments to Germany, the project is linked to the conceptual literature, e.g. on institutional and cognitive distance, and a comparative study design is applied. Up to now, systematic information on the scope of Chinese investments in Germany does not exist. Therefore, Chinese subsidiaries in Germany will be identified in the first part of the project by database analysis and expert interviews. The main empirical part of the project consists of qualitative interviews with Chinese subsidiaries (multiple informant method), cooperating firms (suppliers, customers, competitors), and industry experts.