Strategic challenge, strategic responses, and strategies: Study of Chinese state-owned enterprises

The purpose of this study is to identify the dominant challenges and forces for change to State-Owned Enterprises in China (SOE), the nature of SOE responses to those forces, and the degree of SOE success in making the necessary transformations to compete in a global business environment.; Five questions were explored and examined in this dissertation research. (1) What factors create strategic challenges to SOEs? (2) How have SOEs responded to a more market driven environment? (3) What factors determine the strategies of the SOEs? (4) What new business processes and structures have SOEs planned and implemented? (5) How do SOEs measure the performance of their new strategies?; The investigation was carried out using case study methodology. Eight companies in seven industries were studied of which six were used for this dissertation. A holistic conceptual model for SOE study has been developed based on the framework derived from Hofer's preliminary research. This model, which is built on the concept of business strategy, summarizes the findings of this study, and has proved to be an effective analytic tool in studying the patterns of strategic behaviors of SOEs in China's dynamic environment of economic, social and industrial transformations. The major contribution of this model is that it takes the holistic view, and studies the developments in strategic behaviors at a macro level. Even though the variables in the model can change and their significance can vary at different stages of change, the model provides theoretical guidance in research in emerging economies, and can catch the dynamics of change. The beauty of this model lies in its simplicity in logic flow and practicality in application.; State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China are its dominant economic organizations. (1) Among 305,000 SOEs, 118,000 are industrial firms that provide the basic inputs for the economy, provide employment and social welfare for the vast majority of China's urban workers, and provide the bulk of fiscal revenues for most governmental levels. (2) SOEs account for 35–40 percent of the nation's gross national product and 60 percent of all state revenue. (3) SOEs constitute the nation's entire heavy industrial base.