German Business in India: Economic Expansion and Transnational Integration, 1950-1985.

自上世纪70年代以来，工业化经济体和新兴经济体的融合是在环境发生变化的情况下发生的。现在，公司正在寻找新的生产基地和网络，以跟上竞争激烈的国际市场的步伐。新兴经济体除了早先主要是殖民地资源提供者的地位外，对企业来说变得更加重要和有趣。通过研究德国企业的历史及其在独立印度的战略，该项目旨在说明这些新兴经济体在经济和商业史上日益增长的重要性。它询问了自20世纪50年代以来，德意志联邦共和国的公司是如何打开或重新进入印度市场的。印度可以作为西方经济和政治利益与当时非殖民化新兴经济体联系在一起的一个主要例子。从方法上讲，这是在两个广泛的层面上进行的，其中a)宏观框架和b)新兴经济体和非殖民化经济体国际商业的微观实践。不同经济和政治行为者的利益、期望和回旋余地构成了研究的重点。在宏观层面上，重点研究了经济一体化的制度结构。在关注走出去的基本条件的同时，这项研究还特别分析了监管和对外经济政策框架的变化，以及来自西德和印度的参与者，如经济部、经济合作部、商业协会和商会如何影响、构建或最终抑制经济一体化和商业国际化的进程。从微观角度来看，这项研究关注的是西德和印度单个企业的行为和战略。通过对西德企业进行基于来源的实证调查，该项目希望调查个别企业是如何在印度市场上运作的，同时考虑到在新独立的印度等风险环境下，商业利益与潜在的更广泛政治背景之间的紧张关系。随着许多西德公司渴望在1945年后冷战期间(重新)进入政治和经济风险较大的印度市场，这项研究想要调查德国企业和经济政策制定者一旦在当地取得经验后，他们在经济和政治上的期望和适应过程。对西德来说，印度成为其亚洲发展政策和援助的立足点，这也应该会让西德企业受益。这项研究分析了西德外国企业在新兴经济体和非殖民化经济体的经济行动的正式和非正式术语。在这方面，它评估了当地知识和人员整合对于德国公司在印度成功扩展业务的重要性。

Since the 1970s the integration of industrialised and emerging economies happened under changed circumstances. Now, companies were looking for new production bases and networks in order to keep the pace of competitive international markets. The emerging economies became more important and interesting for business apart from their earlier status of mostly colonial providers of resources. By looking at the history of German businesses and their strategies in independent India, the project aims to account for the rising importance of such emerging economies in economic and business history. It asks how companies from the Federal Republic of Germany opened up or re-entered the Indian market from the 1950s onwards. India can be taken as a prime example for the economic and political interests of the West linked to decolonised emerging economies of that time.Methodically, this is done on two broad levels, where a) the macro-framework and b) micro-practices of international business in emerging and decolonised economies are analysed. The interests, expectations and room for manoeuvre of different economic and political actors make up the focal point of the study. On a macro-level, the study focuses on the institutional structures of economic integration. While focusing on the underlying conditions of going global, the study notably analyses changes in the regulatory and foreign economic policy framework and how actors from both Western Germany and India such as the Ministry for Economics, Ministry for Economic Cooperation, business associations and chambers of commerce influenced, structured or eventually inhibited processes of economic integration and business internationalisation. From a micro-perspective, the study focuses on the behaviour and strategies of individual businesses in Western Germany and India. Through a source-based empirical investigation of businesses from Western Germany, the project wants to investigate how individual businesses worked on the Indian market, taking into consideration the tension between business interests and the underlying broader political context in a risk environment such as the newly-independent India. With many companies from West Germany eager to (re-)enter the politically and economically risky Indian market after 1945 in the context of the Cold War, the study wants to investigate the economic and political expectations and adaption processes of businesses and economic policymakers from Germany once they made 'on the ground' experiences.For Western Germany, India became the toehold for its Asian development policy and assistance which should also benefit Western German business. The study analyses the formal and informal terms for economic action of West-German foreign businesses in emerging and decolonised economies. In this regard it assesses the importance of local knowledge and personnel integration for a successful expansion of German companies' business in India.