The Re-emergence of the Chinese Economy: Internationalization and Technological Catch-up in the Automobile Industry (1953-2018)

Abstract

[eng] Over the last four decades, China has emerged as the world's main economic actor. This thesis aims to provide a new understanding of the re-emergence of the Chinese economy. The main hypothesis is that this process was achieved through the interdependence of industrial policies and internationalization strategies of Chinese firms. The thesis analyses whether state intervention shaped a two-way internationalization pattern (inward and outward) for the case of China's automobile industry from 1953 to 2018. The dissertation is divided into three main chapters. Chapter 2 examines the extent to which state intervention affected the dynamics of internationalization of automobile firms. Chapter 3 explores the output growth and technological dependence in China's automobile sector, analysing the limits of China's industrial policy using a novel indicator. Chapter 4 analyses how Chinese automobile firms interacted with foreign actors in the domestic market and abroad through internationalization decisions conditioned by the industrial policy.

The results confirm the robustness of the hypothesis. Chinese enterprises were initially state-owned, and only after the economic reforms the government allowed non-state-owned enterprises. Industrial policies enabled the inward internationalization process to begin first, with the entry of foreign capital through joint ventures, and the outward process began later. However, even though the "market for technology" strategy failed to achieve technological independence, China’s automobile industry accumulated learning