Challenges of Acclimatizing to the Chinese Market : Viewed from the perspectives of a multinational corporation and consultants

Abstract: Multinational corporations are active in a complex global society, embedded in a web of different cultures and varying perceptions. Distant markets constitute challenging discrepancies that are a demanding process to bridge, but nevertheless some of these markets are critical for the future success of corporations. Perhaps the most opportunity rich and desired market for global actors is China, where the economical progression has been impressive and is expected to continue to progress incredibly fast in the coming years. With a concentration of the world’s leading actors, all in the search for a continuing future success, attention from head offices is disproportionally distributed to China in order to support the local subsidiaries. A relevant question here is if attention without presence is enough? Understanding the size and growth pace is one thing, which can be done from a distance, but understanding the people, the governing bodies, and the culture is another. And what are the consequences of disproportionally distributing a limited amount of central attention for the less prioritized regions? These tricky questions are creating a managerial puzzle for multinational corporations to solve, and a prerequisite for doing this is through a sufficient amount of knowledge. An increasingly used method in these situations is to use intermediaries in form of consultants that have the experience and knowledge to mediate meanings from the corporation to the target audience. So how do these challenges take shape in a specific case for a multinational corporation and how are the challenges handled in the view from representatives from the corporation and consultants?