Study: Behavioral and cultural aspects of German family firms internationalizing to China and India

China and India are the largest markets in Asia and, in recent years, have shown continuous growth despite a challenging economic environment worldwide. Many German family firms have benefited from this development by making investments and thus achieved stable growth despite the stagnation of Western markets. Over the next two years global economic growth will once again be driven by India (7.5 %), China (6.3 %) and the ASEAN states (5 %), according to IMF’s projections.

31 interview-based case studies

The study "Behavioral and Cultural Aspects in the Internationalization Processes to China and India of German Family Firms", recently published by DEG, shows how German family businesses can internationalize their businesses successfully in China and India. It was developed in cooperation with the Witten Institute for Family Businesss (WIFU) of the Witten/Herdecke University, supervised by Professor Andrea Calabrò and his team, and, based on 31 case studies, describes the behaviour of German companies when entering and operating in those markets as well as the opportunities and challenges involved.

The findings of the study give German family businesses planning to invest in China and India or improve their market presence there, good insights by providing a comprehensive practice guide. The study identifies key success factors for preparation, execution and reflection of the internationalization process. Besides economic issues, the study examines the importance of language, religion, (business) culture, governmental requirements, but also of networking and family, during the internationalization process. DEG co-financed the study via its Business Support Services (BSS).

A paper by Ann Sophie K. Löhde and Andrea Calabrò dealing with internationalization strategies of family businesses, based on the results of the study, has now been awarded the BEST PAPER AWARD ON CONFERENCE THEME (Locality and Internationalization of Family Business) at the IFERA Conference 2017 (The International Family Enterprise Research Academy) in Zadar, Croatia.