Enterprise China

Chapter 7CAN ENTERPRISE CHINA BE DERAILED?

Across the previous six chapters of this book, we have had three major objectives. First, we sought to highlight that taking a traditional competitive analysis approach to China that focuses on Chinese enterprises and not Enterprise China can cause executives to miscalculate the risks and opportunities relative to competing in and with China. Second, we tried to bring to greater light and provide a deeper understanding of Enterprise China's three‐part competitive strategy. And third, we endeavored to examine the strategic options and actions that foreign companies can pursue in responding to Enterprise China, both in China and abroad. Through all of this we have argued that foreign executives should take Enterprise China's strategic objectives and plans as seriously as the Chinese do.

However, just because Enterprise China has strategic objectives and plans and just because those plans have enjoyed notable success to this point does not guarantee that Enterprise China is predestined to succeed in the future. Therefore, in this chapter, we have two objectives. The first is to highlight the key factors that could derail Enterprise China's strategy. The second is to provide an empirically based assessment of the extent to which those risk factors push Enterprise China's competitive strategy toward derailment. Achieving both of these objectives enables business executives to know what to closely or casually monitor and helps them to better ...