Managing New Zealand-China Business Collaboration at the Personal (and Personnel) Level

How can New Zealand businesses best manage collaborative relationships with Chinese partners so as to contribute to competitive advantage? Business interaction between New Zealand and China has become a focus for the New Zealand government, the general public, and New Zealand businesses. China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner in terms of imports, and second largest for exports. In 2011, exports to China grew by 22%, and China was the largest source of fee-paying international students and fourth largest source of tourists. The importance of China to the New Zealand economy is described in the New Zealand government’s ‘NZ Inc. China Strategy ’ in a booklet titled Opening Doors to China: New Zealand’s 2015 Vision, released at the time of completion of this research (NZTE & MFAT, 2012). Two of the five objectives within this strategy are to grow high quality science and technology collaborations with China to generate commercial opportunities, and to increase bilateral investment to levels that reflect the growing commercial relationship with China. For each of the five objectives to be met (and these two in particular), and for New Zealand businesses to succeed in China generally, New Zealand organisations and the people within them must be able to work with—that is, collaborate with—their Chines