【Survey,on,Chinese,Enterprises’,Outbound,Investment,and,Operation,(II)】 and so on是什么意思

　　(I) General situation of enterprises going global 　　In recent years, despite the rapid going global pace of domestic enterprises, China’s foreign investment is still in the primary period as a whole, lagging far behind traditional large countries in terms of stock of foreign direct investment, this survey of the ratio between employees, assets and sales of overseas branches to the total amount of employees, assets and sales of parent enterprises indicates: those with a ratio below 10% are 65.4%, 54.2% and 42.9% of firms respectively, while those with a ratio above 50% are 6.4%, 7.1% and 15% of firms respectively. We can come to two conclusions from these data: first, the ratio between assets, employees and business of overseas branched to the total of the enterprises remains quite low; second, compared with domestic business, overseas business, with lower ratio of staff and assets, has achieved higher proportion of sales, and to some extent, attained the goal of seeking a broader market.
　　
　　The distribution of all overseas branches of enterprises in various continues show: the enterprises surveyed have 443 overseas branches in all, 32.5% of them are in Asia, 15.6% in Africa, 11.7% in Oceania, 13.8% in North America, 16.9% in Europe, and 9.5% in Latin America. Owning to location and similar cultural and economic conditions, Asia has become the most important going global destination of domestic enterprises, Africa and Oceania are important destinations for their rich natural resources, while North America and European important destinations possibly because of their advanced economies and rich technical resources.
　　(II) Destinations, industries and methods of investment
　　1. Gradual expansion of investment destinations
　　Most of the newest branches of enterprises surveyed were established in the past 5 years. At the time of the survey, 31% overseas branched had been established for less than 1 year, 58.4% of them had been established for 1-5 years, 7% had been established for 6-10%, and only 3.7% had been established for over 10 years.
　　As revealed by the data from the surveyed on “distribution of newest overseas branched in various continents”, among these branches, 48.7% of them are in Asia, 17.1% in Africa, 12.7% in Europe, 12.3% in North America, 4.8% in Oceana, and 4.4% in Latin America. In comparison to the distribution of all the above oversea branches in various continents, we can see that the proportion of the distribution of the newest overseas branched in Africa, Europe, North America and Latin America exceeds that of all overseas branches in these continents, while the distribution proportion of newest overseas branched in Asia and Oceania is lower than that of all oversea branches in these continents. Since the regional distribution of newest oversea branches reflects the recent going global situation of enterprises we believe that enterprises are gradually enlarging their destinations to Africa, Europe, North America and Lain America after having accumulated experiences in overseas investment.
　　2. Forms of investment are dominated by new Greenfield projects
　　As data shows, among the “newest overseas branched established” of the enterprises surveyed, 69.6% of the branches are independent green field projects, 20.3% are new joint-ventures, and only 10.1% are merged and acquired subsidiaries. Data from the survey shows that the forms of foreign direct investment of domestic enterprises are still dominated by new construction.
　　In addition, Figure 4.2 shows the difference between modes of investment used by enter-
　　prises to establish overseas branched in Europe& North America and Africa: a large proportion of the enterprises surveyed selected the form of independent new green field investments (over 70%) at the time of investment in Europe, North America and Africa. Another distinct difference is, the enterprises surveyed established new enterprises more through joint-venture in Africa, and but were no cases of mergers or acquisitions in Africa.
　　(III) Localization of going global of enterprises
　　1. Higher degree of localization in investment and management
　　According to the data, “special demands of local customers and constant improvement of customers’ satisfaction” ranks the top reasons for localized operation of enterprises (60.6% enterprises think the degree of their localization high in this regard). Moreover, in order to “authorize heads of overseas branched to make budgetary& financial decisions and hire employees” and“develop local partnerships and deepen cooperation”, more than half of the enterprises think the localization degree of their own branched should be high.
　　Besides, in term of “learning, absorbing and applying the local business culture of the host country, using the local human resources and capital market, as well as using local raw materials and components”, more than half of the enterprises consider their efforts insufficient. The analysis reveals higher degree of management localization of overseas operation of domestic enterprises. In another words, the degree of “authorization for overseas branches to make decisions based on local host country conditions” is high, while the degree of their “use human and raw materials for production and operation” is low.
　　1.1 investment and contribution and contributions of domestic enterprises in Africa
　　The degree of localization may vary much as a result of different contextual factors in the investment destination. In general, there is not much difference between the localization of investment of domestic enterprises in Africa and Europe & North America. Taking the investment in Africa as an example, the degree of “develop local partnerships and deepen cooperation, use the local human resources, and authorize heads of overseas branches to make budgetary & financial decisions and hire employees” of domestic enterprises in Africa are all higher than the localization of investment in Europe & North America. To a certain extent, the survey data proves that the investment of domestic enterprises in Africa is not predatory. On the contrary, it has made important contributions to the development of the local economy and improvement of local employment levels. In the process of investing in Africa, domestic enterprises observed the laws of the African countries, respected their customs and culture, hired local employees, served the local market and paid taxed locally. Without a doubt, domestic enterprises not only believe that Africa is a huge market with great potential, but are also promoting the industrialization of Africa through investment and cooperation to meet the demands of its future development and raise the living standards of the local people.
　　1.2 Potential advantage of host countries over domestic market
　　As high as 81.7% enterprises believe that the market growth potential of host countries is higher than that of domestic market. In addition, more than half of the enterprises surveyed agree that compared with domestic market, in the host countries, it is less difficult to obtain funds, the level of competition is lower, the upstream and downstream industries are more complete, it is easier to obtain high-level personnel and necessary technologies for innovation, the operating cost is lower and it is easier to obtain parts and raw materials. These data indicates: on the one hand, the going global of domestic enterprises has indeed found a market environment more appropriate for their development. Overseas markets are vast, hence providing a rosy future for investment; on the other hand, there is hint that the development scope of these enterprises going global has been restricted at home.
　　As revealed by a further analysis of the difference between the local market environments of overseas branches in Europe & North America and Africa, for enterprises going global, the main attractions of Europe & North America lie in their higher market growth potential, better completion of upstream and downstream industries, and lower difficulty to hire highly educated personnel and obtain necessary technologies, funds, components and raw materials for innovation; while the main attractions of Africa lie in its higher market growth potential, lower degree of governmental regulations, low level of market competition, and lower production cost.
　　What merits notice is, except 72.2% enterprises who believe the production cost in host countries of Africa is lower than at home, there are still 56.9% enterprises who consider the production cost in host countries in Europe & North America to be lower than at home. In recent years, some investigations believe, compared with low-cost production bases of eastern and southern Europe, domestic cost advantage is weakened. While such a change has not only affected the going global choice of domestic enterprises, but also affected domestic competitiveness in attracting foreign investment.
　　2. Overseas operation status: poor in general, Africa is better than Europe & North America
　　Although the going global scale of domestic enterprises is growing in recent years, what cannot be neglected is that their perception of their overseas operations is not optimistic. For example, the success rate of their overseas merger attempts remains quite low.
　　Enterprises surveyed were asked to evaluate and mark their satisfaction with operational indicators of their overseas branches. The evaluation indicators are mainly overseas sales (growth rate), overseas sales margin (growth rate) and overseas local market shares. More than half of the enterprises going global are satisfied with their overseas sales (growth rate), while half of the enterprises going global are not satisfied with their overseas sales margin (growth rate) and overseas market shares. What deserves special notice is that the enterprises’ satisfaction with the growth of their overseas sales is lower than their satisfaction with their overseas sales; their satisfaction with the growth of their overseas sales margin is lower than their satisfaction with their overseas sales margin. Lower satisfaction with growth rate can be regarded as the early warning of “lack of power” of their later-period growth, while the insufficient early-stage preparation for the going global of enterprises may be one of the reasons behind the lack of leverage during later periods.
　　According to the survey, it is obvious that domestic enterprises are more satisfied with operational indicators of overseas branches in Africa than in Europe& North America. On the positive side, enterprises’ satisfaction with the 6 operational performance indicators of their overseas branches in Africa all exceed 50%, far above that in Europe & North America. A report of the World Bank claims, the substantial investment from China has greatly improved the condition of infrastructures of Africa, laying a firm basis for its economic development, and played a great role in its economic development.
　　Of course, domestic enterprises may not merely aim to increase market share in the short term and achieve fast growth through investment, but also to learn advanced management concepts and acquire technologies and brands. The analysis indicates Chinese enterprises need to raise their investment efficiency in Europe & North America and improve their investment results to achieve long-term stable development.