unfortunate and challenging experiences with the Chinese style of business. They all
have stories about local Chinese companies copying their products and violating their
intellectual property rights; stories of not being able to take legal actions against these
copycats or of local governments trying to protect and support Chinese companies
through subsidies and other regulations. In many cases, this has left Danish companies
with a rather negative view and a very low trust in China and Chinese companies.
ture (JV) partnership with a local Chinese manufacturer. The JV was mainly
set up as a local sourcing platform, focusing on manufacturing some specific
products for the global and local market. 4 years ago, the company discov-
ered that their JV partner cheated them as he illegally sold their products
to local customers in his own name without informing the company. After a
4-year struggle, the company finally got out of the JV partnership and took
control of the local manufacturing setup in China but leaving the former
JV partner as a direct competitor. During the process of getting out of the JV
partnership, the company also discovered that the sourcing network around
the JV was, to a large extent, built around close friendships and family rela-
tions, meaning that sub-suppliers to the manufacturing site in China were
actually close family members of their JV partner.
into a new potential cooperation with a Chinese partner. This lack of trust inhibits an
open dialogue and free flow of information, which slows down the local business develop-
ment process, as HQ wants to control and monitor what is going on. The most common
solution to cope with this issue is to find a person that HQ trusts 100% and place this
person at the local partner. The main objective and task of this person is to build a strong
and equal relationship with the local partner so that they are acting according to mutual
agreements.
company's future market for growth, their actual actions often indicate that they are
still much more focused on maintaining their existing developed markets, where they
currently make the main part of their profits and revenue. Consequently, most of their