Chinese Construction Investments in Africa: The Case of Zambia

Abstract: This thesis contributes to the empirically and theoretically based understanding of Chinese investments in Africa through a case study of the Zambian construction industry. The thesis finds that a large part of Chinese construction firms in Zambia entered in three “waves” between 1987 and 2000. The state-owned first-wave firms entered Zambia backed by the Chinese government; the similar third-wave firms entered ten years later as more autonomous multinational enterprises; the second- wave firms were privately owned firms that sprung from the first-wave firms. The theoretical analysis employs the Eclectic Paradigm of International Production, the Uppsala Internationalization Process Model, and recent theory developments related to emerging economy-investments. It shows that Chinese investments in Zambia’s construction industry is a complex issue that benefits from analysis including several theoretical perspectives. Such an analysis highlights the Chinese government’s role in facilitating and initiating investments, the role of individuals and experiential knowledge in furthering the internationalization, and also points out the heterogeneity of Chinese construction investments in Zambia. The analysis further finds that investment drivers for the studied firms were largely consistent with previous research on international contractors. The thesis’s main theoretical contribution is the finding that the Uppsala Model can help explain internationalization processes of employee startups.