Case Study of Huawei, a Chinese
Technology Enterprise (Summary)
After 20 years of development, many Chinese technology companies decided to undertake their
internationalization process, and among these companies we find Huawei, which is a private hightech.
According to Uppsala and its internationalization model, there are four different ways or ways to enter
a Market:
No regular export activity
Export through independent representatives (Agents)
Establishment of a foreign sales subsidiary
Production / manufacturing units.
In order for a company to achieve its objectives, it is necessary to take into account 3 factors
mentioned below and to choose the appropriate input modes:
Firm factors
Environmental factors
Moderating factors
LITERATURE REVIEW
Welch & Luostarinen (1988) discusses internationalization as a process in which firms gradually
increase their international participation.
Johanson & Wiedersheim-Paul (1975) present the Internationalization Model called the 'Uppsala
model' which has 4 Steps:
There are no regular export activities
export through independent representation (agent)
sales subsidiary
production / manufacturing
RESEARCH METHODS
The aim of this research is to analyze the internationalization
process in Chinese Hi-technology enterprises. he research also
draws on reviewing existing literature, documentary research of
statistic database and publications in the Internet, newspapers,
and magazines.
THE PROFILE OF HUAWEI AND ITS GROWTH IN THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET
Huawei Technologies was founded in 1988. It is a private high-tech enterprise which offers
customized network solutions for operators from all over the world, specializing in research and
technological development.
Huawei has more than 61,000 employees, of which 48% is
dedicated to R & D. Huawei has provided products and
services for more than 300 Telecommunications around
the world. It has achieved extraordinary growth over 17
years since its foundation. Huawei has gained the leading
position in the global market in 3G, next generation
network (NGN), switching, xDSL, and optical network and
data transmission areas. The first step of
internationalization at Huawei is the custom design of
'Number Portability Service' for Hutchison Telecoms.
THE FOREIGN ENTRY MODES USED BY HUAWEI
Huawei applied different modes of entry into different
markets (different geographic markets and different
product markets), these are:
Joint Venture in Russian Market: Huawei's
market selection strategy targets markets that
have weak telecommunications infrastructure,
but have great development potential.
Export Entry Mode in South America, Asia and
Africa: Huawei uses export method as input
mode due to factors of great influence on
both sides, these factors are geographical
distance and local market conditions.
Contractual Entry Modes in North America, West
Europe and Other Countries: These methods include
franchising, co-research, co-production (OEM) and
Cosales (helping each other to sell products in each of
their own markets), the table below reflects these
alliances
Different Entry Modes for Different Products:
Huawei also employs different entry modes flexibly
to different products In the products without
advantages, for instance in 2G mobile networks,
Huawei cooperates with Giants of this area. For the
products with technological advantage and without
market resource, it uses the modes of joint venture,
franchising or co-research.
UPPSALA STAGES MODEL AND HUAWEI’S INTERNATIONALIZATION PROCESS
Huawei did not follow the steps of Uppsala Mode In fact, it can be identified that high-tech
enterprises' Internationalization is in some respects different from that of traditional enterprises
Due to the characteristics of the high-tech industries and the changes in the modern market
Environment
The development of the modern international market is reflected
in the following forms:
Deploying a great deal of agents in the host market that
to help foreign enterprises overcome the shortness of
marketing experience.
Promoting technological cooperation and alliance in the international market to help enterprises
speed up the process of internationalization.
- Enhancing global communication to stimulate the fast growth of
international human resource, which helps enterprises enter international
market without worrying about shortness of international professionals.
THE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE INTERNATIONALIZATION
PROCESS OF HUAWEI
According to Driscall's framework, firm factors and environmental factors are
the situational influences that affect the choice of international mode of entry.
Firm factors include the company's specific
advantage, experience and strategy.
Environmental factors include demand, competition,
socio-cultural conditions and political and economic
conditions.
Huawei’s internationalization comes from the fact that China, the
home country of Huawei, is a developing country and the
developing countries’ hi-technology products will face extra
barriers when they enter international market.