Internationalization Strategy of Chinese Multinational Enterprise: A Case Study of Gree Electric Inc.

A lot of theories have been proposed for explaining the internationalization of the Chinese firms. But a giant Chinese air conditioner manufacturer Gree Electric Inc. has been barely studied by the western scholars as its low profile on international appearances. Therefore, in this study, we put our attentions on this unspotted firm to examine if Gree’s internationalizations behaviours are explainable by the internationalization theories, namely Uppsala model, resource based view, institution based view, and industry based view. We found that Gree is sticking on its original equipment manufacturing (OEM) contracts with the western firms, which motivated us to study behind Gree’s OEM relationships with its partners. We discovered the possibility that the Gree is using OEM contracts as a new internationalization approach for channelling, leveraging, and transmitting its strong ownership advantages globally. Such finding suggests that the relationship between the contract manufacturers and OEMs has been overlooked as it has been presumed that two parties are in the unequally bargaining position, and further studies in this area will be required