In terms of human resources, the current debate is focused on the continued need for multinational corporations in China to increase hiring of local staff, particularly for operations management, while decreasing or completely removing expatriate staff. Reasons for this shift away from expatriate staff include the high cost of salary and benefit packages, questionable value (in terms of productivity and ability to drive the business), high failure rates and most recently, the large readily available talent pool of expatriates already based in China (“halfpats”).

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When a company sets up operations in China they appear to be faced with two distinct choices: ‘going local’, or imposing the dominant business culture of their organization.

It’s not an easy choice, and there are no clear cut answers as to which route will bring you the best results. In the absence of a definite conclusion it can become a battle of wills to see which culture will win.

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The more I learned in China about the contrast between the way folks in the East and the West make use of their names and titles, the more fascinating it seemed, maybe because I think it implies something about the deep differences between our two cultures.

In China, one first identifies oneself in relation to the larger group, then the smaller group, then within the family, and only after that, as an individual.

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By Mona Chung

Chinese market has been a highly preferred market for many organisations worldwide in the past twenty years. However, it is not an easy market to penetrate. Australian companies are among those Europeans and Americans who have been tackling the market with little positive results. One primary reason is that they do not appreciate the important role and impact of Chinese culture.

Cultural differences

Many business people argue that there are many similarities between Westerners and Chinese. After all we are all humans; we all understand if we are in business together we need to make profits. Read the rest of “The impact of cultural difference when entering the Chinese market” or post a comment

By Zennon Kapron

Most of the commentary on the Shanghai market depicts the average Chinese investor as unknowledgeable and following the herd. However, a recent study that we’ve (kapronasia) just completed with Amber shows that individual Shanghai A-share investors are actually much more market savvy than commonly thought.

Although influences like lucky numbers and family advice still impact some decision making, the reality is that most investment decisions today are made on the basis of solid indicators like company fundamentals and straight-forward economics. However, even with this knowledge, Chinese investors still invest in a market that they clearly view as overvalued. Read the rest of “Betting on the Dragon: Chinese investor behaviour” or post a comment