Strategic considerations for construction in the People’s Republic of China: the case of German contractors in the 1990s

The construction industry has been struggling to integrate business strategies that areanticipating the internationalisation and infiltration of international markets. This articleattempts to evaluate the China operations of German contractors from a strategicmanagement decision perspective in the period between 1990 and 2000. Existinginternationalisation theories have appeared to be inappropriate to explain internationalconstruction due to the unique project nature of construction business. The Ownership,Location and Internationalisation (OLI)-paradigm was initially developed to explaininternational production pattern was revised to form the basis for the evaluation of theConstruction contractors’ market activities. The interviews indicate an industry-specificculture that affects how companies approach foreign markets. Some exceptionalcompanies illustrated a higher degree of openness towards a more strategic andconsistent approach in terms of the development of overseas markets.