German Business in China – Greater Shanghai Innovation Survey 2018/19
Innovation orientation
“Fortune favors the bold.”
— Virgil
Roman poet (70 BC - 19 BC)
‘Innovation’ and ‘China’ – two terms that were hardly used in one sentence a few years
ago – have now become a common combination. In 2018 and as the first middle-income
economy, China has entered the world's top 20 most innovative economies in the Global
Innovation Index 1 . From 2017 to 2018, China has made a leap from position 22 to position
17 on the index. At the same time, Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, DJI,
Huawei, Tencent, Xiaomi, and many more have secured spots in our minds as leaders in
innovation.
German companies in China increasingly perceive domestic firms as equally or more
innovative when compared to German enterprises. As the Business Confidence Survey
2017 2 revealed, more than 40% of German companies in China think that Chinese
companies can become innovation leaders within five years. Increasing R&D spending –
R&D spending of Chinese enterprises rose by 13% in 2017 3 – and acquisitions of foreign
high-tech companies – like Midea's acquisition of Kuka – are only two bricks that pave the
way for China's innovation success.
How are German manufacturing companies in Greater Shanghai dealing with this
development?
1
Cornell University, INSEAD, WIPO (2018)
2
German Chamber of Commerce (2017)
3
China Daily (2018)
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