Abstract
Chinese enterprises are presently dominating various sectors of businesses abroad, offering a wide range of low to high-end quality products and services. The construction sector in Africa is now being dominated by Chinese multinational contractor companies, who find in Africa their next preferable market to grow. The available literature on the field has serious gaps in explaining which organisational strategies increase the competitive advantage and the market dominance of Chinese multinational contractors, especially in the Southern African region. This research aims to uncover the organisational strategies, implemented by Chinese multinational contractors operating in the Southern African region, who have paved the way and consolidated their success in the region. Through a mixed methods process, qualitative and quantitative data are obtained. The construction markets of the Southern African region are analysed (environmental analysis) and the main multinational Chinese contractors are identified, through a literature review and organisational analysis. Several organisational strategies are shortlisted and, finally, through an online questionnaire, the opinions of the participants to rank the organisational strategies previously identified in terms of contribution to the actual success, copying capability, etc., are carried out. The findings revealed that the capability to offer a lower price for construction services, the easy access to loans and funds from the organisation's home government and the capability to trade debt for local resources, such as wood, land and minerals are the organisational strategies that mostly contributed to the recent Chinese contractor dominance in the Southern African construction market.
Highlights
This management research project is dedicated to uncovering the organisational strategies as implemented by Chinese multinational construction companies (CMCCs) operating in Southern Africa (South African Development Community member countries), which paved the path to their recent success, in South Africa and international construction industry
The study identified 10 organisational strategies that were implemented and followed by the notorious Chinese contractor companies while the online questionnaire survey revealed that: 1. The capability to offer a low price for construction services, easy access to loans and funds from the Chinese government and the capability to trade debt for local resources are the organisational strategies that most contribute to the recent success endured by Chinese contractors in the Southern African construction industry
The training and development of human resources and the creation of dedicated and specialised subsidiaries are the organisational strategies that least contribute to the recent success endured by Chinese contractors in the Southern African construction industry
Summary
This management research project is dedicated to uncovering the organisational strategies as implemented by Chinese multinational construction companies (CMCCs) operating in Southern Africa (South African Development Community member countries), which paved the path to their recent success, in South Africa and international construction industry. More than 60 CMCCs are present in Engineering News-Record (ENR) List of Top International Contractors, which, on its own, is a sign of their dominance Adding to this record, CMCCs detain a market share of the international construction industry of more than 20%, which translates on revenue related to the construction project's backlog of more than USD100 billion in 2016. CMCCs detain a market share of the international construction industry of more than 20%, which translates on revenue related to the construction project's backlog of more than USD100 billion in 2016 Besides these facts, available in ENR, several current literature examples depict the Chinese contractor dominance in the international market, especially in Africa (Cheng, 2010; Chen et al, 2007; Corkin, 2011; Flanagan et al, 2013; Lan, 2011; Lu et al, 2013; Mwangi, 2011)
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