Internationalization of Chinese Corporations : A Case Study of Guangdong Enterprises' Outward Foreign Direct Investment

Chinese enterprises' outward foreign direct investment has been rarely studied using primary data. Based on questionnaire investigation of Guangdong enterprises from 2005 through 2012, this article designs questionnaire questions and analyzes internationalization of Guangdong enterprises through a framework of six facets: namely global human resources, global strategy, global operations, global structure, global culture, and global learning. Using the four-phase hypothesis, the conclusion shows that, Guangdong enterprises have entered into stage II, namely the cross-border stage of internationalization, and to a lesser degree, entered into stage III, namely the multinational stage. Specifically, in the four areas of global learning, global operations, global strategies, and global culture, Guangdong enterprises' preparation are sufficient, whereas this is not the case in global human resource internationalization.