Title: The fundamentals-based strategy: the dominant strategy for Chinese firms in a new era

Authors: Rongping Kang, Yinbin Ke

Addresses: Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China. ' Institute of Chinese Enterprises Development, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China

Abstract: The external environment of Chinese businesses made a fundamental shift around 2000/2001. This change would necessitate a corresponding change in growth strategies. A holistically framed concept of |niche| strategy or the |fundamentals based strategy|, however, appears to be or will be the dominant growth strategy for Chinese firms in this changed environment. The fundamentals based strategy advocated in this paper is not only rooted in the classic Chinese strategy thinking but also supported by the practices of an increased number of Chinese firms. The main contributions of this paper include: 1) proposing a holistic concept of the niche strategy or the fundamentals based strategy as an enterprise growth strategy; 2) incorporating Chinese classic strategic thinking; 3) integrating Chinese cases to explicate this model; 4) positing that this strategy is effective for latecomers with resource disadvantage. We also propose future research directions.

Keywords: niche strategies; latecomers; fundamentals-based strategies; environmental changes; innovation; systems perspectives; enterprise growth; holistic concepts; Chinese classics; classical philosophy; resource disadvantages; Wanxiang Group; automotive products; U-Joint Group; China International Marine Containers Group; CIMC; business; systems research; strategic management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2010.035075

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2010 Vol.4 No.5/6, pp.565 - 576

Published online: 02 Sep 2010 *

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