Chinese Direct Investments in Germany - Strategies, Realization, and Consequences of Chinese Take-overs of German Enterprises

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Ursula Mense-Petermann
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 286012563

Foreign direct investments (FDI) of Chinese Enterprises, especially those into developed economies, have developed very dynamically in recent years. As Chinese economic policies have been re-directed from a >cheap China< approach (Rein 2012) to an upgrading of products and production, take-overs of German companies by Chinese investors have increased considerably in number. However, knowledge regarding the realization of such take-overs on the micro-level of the enterprise is still scarce. This research gap will be addressed by the research project proposed here. Four research questions will be addressed: (1) Which objectives and which context conditions (on the side of the Chinese Investor, and on the side of the German target company) are informing the take-over and how is the take-over process realized? (2) How is day-to-day cooperation between the Chinese HQ and the German subsidiary displaying during and after the take-over? (3) Which (middle-range and long-term) consequences does the take-over by a Chinese investor have for the German subsidiary? And (4) how can the identified, typical processes and consequences be explained? In how far are existing theories to be extended or modified? These research questions will be investigated within a qualitative research design employing a case study approach.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants