Sun Yongfu, former head of the department of European affairs in the Ministry of Commerce, says that a company's ability to integrate with the cultural and social environment in a given country is an important part of successful internationalization.

"We have seen many unsuccessful cases of Chinese companies going global, and the key is the differences in cultures, standards and concepts between the home country and the destination countries," he says.

"We are used to some ways of operating in China and would bring them to Europe and other parts of the world, but their culture, traditions and laws are quite different from us," he says. For example, Chinese employees would work overtime to get double pay, but Europeans might not hold the same view, he says.

He says that Chinese companies should be able to adopt the destination country's ways of operating and managing companies.

"They need to integrate with the local culture, respect local rules, get familiar with their management ways, do good in local communities and strengthen corporate social responsibilities. Currently, many companies are still deficient in these aspects."

chenyingqun@chinadaily.com.cn

( China Daily European Weekly 01/22/2016 page8)