German-sino Business Networks: Using Organized Networks To Develop Business With China

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN BUSINESS Alexander Häntzschel German-Sino Business Networks Using Organized Networks to Develop Business with China 123 SpringerBriefs in Business More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8860 Alexander Häntzschel German-Sino Business Networks Using Organized Networks to Develop Business with China 13 Alexander Häntzschel Heidelberg University Heidelberg Germany ISSN  2191-5482 ISSN  2191-5490  (electronic) SpringerBriefs in Business ISBN 978-3-319-17857-8 ISBN 978-3-319-17858-5  (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-17858-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015937944 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © The Author(s) 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Foreword How to enter the Chinese market? Where to locate a branch office? And how to hire local staff? German companies interested in developing business with China face countless challenges and have to deal with a broad spectrum of issues. When our organization, the Mannheim Business School, aimed to launch a new executive education program with focus on China, we were happy to find a strong local partner. Together with Tongji University in Shanghai, we kicked-off a joint double-degree MBA program for executives both from Europe and Asia in 2011. Since then we successfully developed the program and had to take many decisions. In this development process, it was always helpful to exchange views with fellow professionals who already made comparable experiences or faced similar challenges. Intuitively, many professionals look out for informal networks. For example, a number of manufacturing companies chose the city of Taicang for their production sites. The “Sino-German Business Corporation City” has already attracted more than 180 companies from Germany. As