A corporate entrepreneurship perspective of pre-entry strategies for internationalization: a case study of a Chinese business conglomerate

The international expansion of Chinese firms is a remarkable phenomenon of contemporary international business. However, international expansion is particularly challenging for firms expanding from emerging market economies such as China because they have relatively few ownership advantages and suffer disadvantages. We apply a corporate entrepreneurship perspective to explore this under-researched topic via a longitudinal case study of a large Chinese business conglomerate. Thirty-one semistructured interviews and seven focus-group discussions were conducted with 55 informants; company documents were also analyzed. We found sophisticated pre-entry entrepreneurial initiatives are critical for successful internationalization, as they enable emerging market firms to overcome some constraints, leverage their assets, and build competences for international venturing.