Understanding the growth models of Chinese multinational corporations

Abstract

For the purpose of this paper, Chinese Multinational Corporations (MNCs) are defined as nonfinancial local corporations initially established in mainland China which have since gone abroad and are developing overseas. This paper makes pertinent points about the flaws in the dominant thinking and existing literature regarding MNCs and then proposes 'emerging globalisation MNC theories' as our new theoretical viewpoints for the development of MNC theories in the era of globalisation. The main methodology applied in this paper is case studies. A total of 16 corporations in eight industrial sectors were surveyed as target cases. Each case company's initial overseas investment is defined. By using Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), internationalisation and MNC theories, a primary summary of the growth models of the Chinese MNCs is presented based on these case studies, the characteristics of the Chinese MNCs are classified and finally, a two-stage model of the Chinese MNCs' internationalisation is proposed, which has laid the foundation for revising some of the MNC theories.