Made-in-China: high-tech national champions of business excellence

Purpose Analyse the development strategies of two Chinese global players in the high-tech sectors. Design/methodology/approach Case-study approach on Huawei Technology Co. Ltd (Huawei) and Jing-Hua Optical & Electronics Co. Ltd (JOC). Findings While Huawei first strategic decision was that of becoming a leader on the domestic market, the key choice for JOC was that of acquiring a European firm. However common features emerge: persistent investment in R&D, strategic collaboration with Universities and presence of government supporting policies, even though the case studies suggest the existence of thresholds for firms to access the benefits of government policy. Research limitations/implications (if applicable) The results pave the way for more general discussions on the emergence of champions of excellence in China. They reinforce the idea that Chinese industrial development is built on non-conventional catching-up processes at the country, local and firm level. They confirm that in order to fully catch the success of national Chinese champions we should investigate better the role of government policies. Implications for the society Results highlight the importance of R&D investment and technology transfer also for SMEs in high-tech sectors. As for policy makers, the practice of official institutional recognition - a well experimented form of rewarding used in China – might be an effective way to stimulate virtuous imitative processes. Originality/value The comparison of these two global players is itself original. Moreover there is a valuable attempt to understand from a national champion’s perspective the importance of supra-firms factors such as collaboration with other institutions and government policies