Global mindset and the performance of Chinese firms

Abstract

More and more Chinese firms are pursuing internationalization strategies. However, most of them have not managed to succeed in the global markets. One possible reason for such failure is their lack of a proper global mindset. This study investigates the following three issues: first, how global minded Chinese firms are; second, what the critical drivers for their global mindedness are; third, what strategic orientation these Chinese firms adopt when they pursue internationalization strategies and how their global mindedness is related to their performance. Results indicate that first, the current level of global mindedness of most Chinese firms are fairly low. Second, experience with foreign culture, leadership vision and firm capacity are important determinants of a firm’s global mindedness. Third, global minded Chinese firms tend to pursue aggressive and risky internationalization strategies and they generally perform better than those with low level of global mindedness.