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）将新兴市场跨国企业（新兴跨国公司或E-MNEs）在发达经济体的投资增加确定为全球发展的一个主要趋势。研究表明，电子跨国公司在投资动机、国际化战略和区位决策方面与发达国家的跨国公司存在显著差异。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。电子跨国公司因其动态发展、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话题。拟议研究项目的目的是研究来自中国的电子跨国公司，这是德国最相关的原产国，关于制度距离、公众认知、合作组织和知识转移的作用。通过选择中国作为德国的投资来源，该项目与概念性文献联系起来，例如制度和认知距离，并采用比较研究设计。到目前为止，还没有关于中国在德投资规模的系统信息。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在德国的中国子公司。项目的主要实证部分包括对中国子公司（多线人法）、合作企业（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.