Internationalization paths of Chinese firms: Evidences from an emerging economy

In this paper, an empirical study is conducted to explore the paths of internationalization for Chinese manufacturing firms. Correspondence analysis was employed to examine the relationship between the internationalization paths and the firms' form of ownership. It reveals that the internationalization paths of Chinese firms appear to be in a form of terrace structure, more firms adopting the rudimentary levels than the more matured courses of internalization. The findings indicate that Chinese firms are characterized by the relatively low levels of internationalization. Also the preferred destinations of going internationalization were identified for firms adopting outward foreign direct investments.