Application of Opportunity Lenses

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Competing_Through_Joint_Innova.pdf

W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 I S S U E

Competing Through Joint Innovation

Vol. 58, No. 2 Reprint #58219 http://mitsmr.com/2hqpODW

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K E E P I N G U P W I T H E M E R G I N G M A R K E T S : S T R A T E G Y

EMERGING MARKETS SUCH AS China and India have become the growth drivers of corporate R&D initiatives from all around the world.1 Although there is growing evidence that Chinese companies are

shifting their innovation focus from cost savings to knowledge-based research, the view by many in the

West remains that companies based in emerging markets are not ready to take over the role of leading

innovators from their Western competitors.2 As a result, Chinese multinationals have been at a competitive

disadvantage, particularly in strategic technology industries.

What can Chinese multinationals do to overcome Western barriers to entry in strategically important

technology industries in which “Made in China” or “Designed in China” are viewed as negatives? What

dynamic innovation capabilities — or, put another way, what culturally specific processes3 — should companies

focus on to gain acceptance in the competitive global marketplace?4

To answer these questions, I studied Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.,

the Chinese telecommunications company that has recently made sig-

nificant inroads in Europe’s mature and strategically important

telecommunications industry. (See “About the Research,” p. 28.) Huawei,

which is based in Shenzhen, is one of the first Chinese multinationals to

be competitive in the West in a strategic technology industry, making it a

potential role model for companies in China and other parts of Asia that

hope to transition from being a follower to being a market leader.5

To achieve its position, Huawei has aggressively pursued a strategy of

joint innovation with leading European customers and governments. In

this article, I will discuss how Huawei worked closely with European cus-

tomers to develop joint innovation capabilities. In the process, the company

was able to emerge as a leader in telecommunications in Europe.

Huawei’s Joint Innovation Capabilities Indian companies such as Bharti Airtel Ltd., a telecommunications services

company headquartered in New Delhi, have demonstrated the importance

of adaptive partnerships with suppliers and customers in emerging

markets.6 What sets Huawei apart are its joint innovation capabilities and

Competing Through Joint Innovation The Chinese telecommunications company Huawei recently has made significant inroads into European markets using a strategy of innovation partnerships with customers and governments. BY MANUEL HENSMANS

THE LEADING QUESTION How can com- panies from developing countries compete in technology markets?

FINDINGS Offer customized technologies that meet the pressing needs of resource- constrained customers.

Build customer loy- alty by partnering with customers on innovation.

Enlist the support of governments and industry stakeholders.

WINTER 2017 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW 27PLEASE NOTE THAT GRAY AREAS REFLECT ARTWORK THAT HAS BEEN INTENTIONALLY REMOVED. THE SUBSTANTIVE CONTENT OF THE ARTICLE APPEARS AS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED.

the conditions that prompted and are still fueling

their development. (See “The Building Blocks of

Huawei’s Joint Innovation Strategy,” p. 29.)

Although a common Western view is that China’s

culture of innovation is constrained by cultural and

political forces, the reality is that China has a strong en-

trepreneurial side.7 Many Chinese entrepreneurs have

aspirations and innovation leadership goals that are

aligned with their North American and European

counterparts. Less than a decade after the company

was founded in 1987, Huawei announced that it

wanted to become one of the world’s leading players in

telecommunications. From the beginning, it has re-

cruited talented engineering graduates from top

Chinese universities with competitive salaries and em-

ployee bonuses, and it has made a point of investing

10% or more of its sales in R&D projects as a way to

compete with Western competitors.

Huawei has effectively turned some of the core

values from China’s Cultural Revolution, such as

self-criticism and constant struggle, in the direction

of competition8 while also tapping into more mod-

ern Chinese social values to advance innovation. For

example, success and ambition are highly valued in

China, yet Chinese employees tend to be less focused

on receiving personal credit than their Western

counterparts and more willing to admit to failure.9

Huawei, which had 2015 revenue of $60.1 billion,

has reinforced its values with employee ownership

and a bonus-driven management structure.10

In the early days, Huawei’s strategy in China was

to target rural townships far from the centers of

power and multinational attention. Local opera-

tors, hotels, and factories needed customized

networking gear and central office switches that

could operate under local conditions such as poor

transmission quality (and even rats chewing elec-

trical wires). Because Huawei was not able to obtain

capital from banks or government at that time, its

earliest R&D efforts focused on working with its

local customers on customized, cost-effective solu-

tions. By taking the time and making the necessary

investments to address their requirements, Huawei

was able to overcome barriers to entry that typically

stood in the way of private companies in China.

Local bureaucrats operating far from the centers of

capital and power began to see Huawei as an im-

portant vehicle for public-private cooperation.

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Through its work with local operators in China,

Huawei learned how to collaborate successfully

with partners (including governments) to provide

customized telecommunications equipment. Even-

tually, it was able to leverage this capability to gain

a foothold with China’s largest telecom customers

in the major cities. Huawei’s CEO and founder,

Ren Zhengfei, who came from a rural town and was

an engineer and scientist in the People’s Liberation

Army, has attributed the company’s approach to in-

novation to two very different main influences: the

principles of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and

the customer-centric views of former IBM Corp.

CEO Louis Gerstner.11

A Three-Stage Strategy for Europe In order to make inroads in Europe, Huawei has

typically relied on the same strategy it used to build

its market position in China: (1) offer customized

technologies that meet the practical needs and

resource constraints of target customers; (2) build

customer loyalty by enhancing practical innovation

with longer-term joint innovation partnerships; and

(3) enlist the support of governments, universities,

and other industry stakeholders by customizing fur-

ther innovation investments to their priorities, so as

to be viewed as a “model citizen.”12 (See “Huawei’s

Three-Stage Approach,” p. 30.)

While the first two stages are sequential, the tim-

ing for the third stage varies depending on the

particular innovation context and the barriers to

entry in the specific market. Some markets, such as

the United States, have been especially difficult to

penetrate, as will be discussed. Regardless of the

exact chronology, the three stages often overlap, as

Huawei’s innovation experience in both China and

Europe demonstrates.

STAGE 1: Offer customized technologies that

meet the practical needs and resource constraints

of target customers. Anticipating significant cus-

tomer and government barriers to entry in Western

European markets, Huawei starting sending em-

ployees there beginning in 2001. Even with direct

support from top management, Huawei had a diffi-

cult time persuading European operators that

a Chinese company was capable of producing

anything but simple products — especially the state-

of-the-art, high-tech equipment they sought. The

first breakthrough occurred in 2004 with Telfort

B.V., a mobile telecommunications provider based

in Amsterdam. At the time, Telfort billed itself as a

no-frills challenger to the established norms of the

mobile industry. Lacking the financial strength of

bigger operators such as London-based Vodafone or

Paris-based France Télécom (now Orange), and

looking for a way to go up against established equip-

ment suppliers such as Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent,

Telfort was willing to make a bet on Huawei’s

products.13 Huawei demonstrated a refreshing will-

ingness to listen closely to Telfort’s requests and find

smart solutions to its unmet needs. By working

closely with Telfort, Huawei was able to produce a

distributed base station that cost less and required

less energy to operate than traditional ones.

Winning over customers such as Telfort was no

easy feat. To do so, Huawei had to present a low-risk

alternative to what the established vendors pro-

vided. It achieved this by offering free testing and

technical support. The hardware itself was often

priced significantly below that of established com-

petitors.14 What’s more, instead of limiting service

to typical Monday through Friday business hours,

Huawei promised service availability 24/7, with

equipment transportation, installation, and main-

tenance at no extra charge.

Huawei’s innovation model has been closely

tied to its heavy investment in R&D. The company

has typically invested more than 10% of its reve-

nues in R&D during the past 15 years, outspending

its European competitors in absolute terms.15

Given the relatively low cost of Chinese engineer-

ing talent, Huawei is able to assign more engineers

to projects than its competitors can. For instance,

even when the company had its first conversations

with prospective customers in Western Europe

in 2000, it employed 10,000 university-trained

engineers. Today, it employs more than 50,000

developers and engineers, more than any of its

Western competitors. In its attempts to be seen as

best of class, Huawei made huge investments in

technology testing, and it has encouraged employ-

ees to get involved with the major standardization

bodies. Through these actions, Huawei has com-

municated the emphasis it places on quality while

still offering custom solutions that are configured

to meet the needs of individual customers.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH This article is based on a five-year study of how Chinese technology com- panies have upgraded their capabilities in the European Union.i Not only had Huawei become a leading telecommunica- tions equipment provider and a leader in terms of its number of patent applica- tions, competitors were recognizing its innovation collaborations with Euro- pean telecom operators as best practice. To under- stand the origins of Huawei’s success, I studied the company’s development from 1987 through its emergence as an influential competitor in the European Union. With the help of two research assistants, I conducted 56 semistructured inter- views with Huawei managers, competitors, policymakers, lobbyists, and customers in China, the European Union, North America, and Latin America, and reviewed materials such as com- pany histories, annual reports, internal docu- ments, and other reports. We explored how Huawei managers were able to convince customers in China and Western Europe to choose their services and products over those of established competitors and how it developed its innovation capability.

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STAGE 2: Build customer loyalty by enhancing

practical innovation w ith longer-ter m joint

innovation partnerships. On its own, Huawei’s

customer-centered perspective was only able to

take the company so far. Indeed, the company had

to work hard to counter the perception that its

products were not up to the quality of those made

by competitors. Huawei began to downplay that it

was the least expensive provider; while offering

highly competitive prices, it emphasizes its ability

to mobilize its large numbers of technical people to

design and implement smart solutions quickly.

Huawei’s innovation strategy began to pay off in

significant ways after it signed a deal in 2005 with

Vodafone, one of the largest mobile telecommuni-

cations companies in the world. Eager to gain an

edge against Telefónica in Spain, Telefónica’s home

market, Vodafone looked for an equipment sup-

plier that could help it build a large number of

third-generation wireless network base stations

using the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommuni-

cations System) standard. It selected Huawei over

leading competitors to provide the radio-access

part of the network. What distinguished Huawei’s

winning bid from those of others was only partly

price; it was also the speed of execution. Huawei

helped Vodafone build and install 10,000 base sta-

tions within one year, two to three times faster than

competitors.16

In 2011, Telenor Group, a large Norwegian mobile

telecommunications company that operates in Scan-

dinavia, Eastern Europe, and Asia, became another

Huawei customer. Telenor wanted to build a high-

speed wireless base station in one of the most remote

and frigid parts of Norway. Other equipment provid-

ers shunned the project due to the extreme working

conditions, the tight schedule, and high overhead

costs, leaving Huawei as the sole bidder. Huawei used

the project to showcase the practicality of its latest net-

work solution, which supported multiple mobile

communications standards and wireless telephone

services on one network. At the same time, the

company demonstrated the flexibility and customer-

centricity of its engineers and its ability to perform

under adverse conditions. Using a wide range of

transportation modes (including helicopters and

snowmobiles), Huawei engineers completed the 4G

wireless base-station project faster than expected.

Huawei was able to formalize its relationships

with leading European operators such as Vodafone

and Telenor by establishing what it calls joint inno-

vation centers, which provide a collaborative

environment for managing the customer-supplier

relationship and remove some of the long-term

uncertainties. Joint innovation centers provide a

platform for Huawei and its customers to work

through complex issues together.

Rather than undertaking several projects at once,

joint innovation centers focus on one problem at a

time. Representatives of the telecom operator and

Huawei come together to explore problems and

potential solutions. Input from senior management

on both sides is an important part of the process.

Such high-level involvement helps build trust, which

is reinforced by clear rules for protecting intellectual

property and sharing risk.

To appreciate how joint innovation centers work

and how they can enhance strategic partnerships

with operators, consider the way Huawei collabo-

rated with Vodafone in 2006 and 2007 to develop a

radio-access technology to enable mobile telecom-

munications operators to support multiple mobile

communications standards and wireless telephone

services on one network. To manage this project,

Vodafone’s global network director and a director of

THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF HUAWEI’S JOINT INNOVATION STRATEGY Huawei has relied on a combination of practices as the basis of its joint innovation strategy. These building blocks have been effective in both emerging and developed markets.

INNOVATE FROM THE PERIPHERY

TO THE CENTER

• Build an independent R&D path via customers with challenging needs

• Develop partnerships with governments

TARGET CUSTOMERS WITH

CHALLENGING NEEDS BEFORE MAINSTREAM CUSTOMERS

• Start by building quality partnerships with customers with challenging needs

• Use customization to lock in the relationship

FOCUS ON INNOVATING

WITH CUSTOMERS

• Think in terms of joint innovation pull rather than technology push

• Solve customer problems through joint innovation centers

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Huawei’s enterprise management team brought

their teams to Madrid twice a year, where they re-

viewed progress and determined what to do next.

The Vodafone and Huawei engineers had identi-

fied a looming strategic problem: Vodafone needed

to retire 110,000 2G sites over the next three years and

replace them with equipment to support the next

generation of mobile technology. Realizing how

disruptive the transition might be for Vodafone

and its customers, the team proposed investigating a

less complicated (and less expensive) way to achieve

the network upgrade, using software rather than

hardware; the steering committee agreed to invest

substantial resources.

The project involved significant risks for both

companies. Although there was the possibility that

Huawei could neutralize the technological threat that

loomed over 2G network owners, doing so would re-

quire significant investment at a time when its role in

the European network infrastructure was extremely

limited. For Vodafone, there was a question of whether

casting its lot with Huawei, a relative upstart, was a

prudent move. As the industry wrestled over the fu-

ture industry standard, no doubt there were safer

moves. At this juncture, the two companies recog-

nized that they needed to move beyond the traditional

supplier-buyer model to embrace joint innovation.

This also involved sorting out the intellectual

property rights issues that may ensue from the

codevelopment of a distributed base station. As part

of their agreement to work together, Huawei and

Vodafone agreed to protect each other’s intellectual

property in the domain they were working in. After

two years of development and several meetings, Hua-

wei delivered the first updated network in 2008. The

solution increased wireless coverage by 25%, reduced

the number of required base-station sites by 40%,

and reduced the total cost of ownership by one-third.

Between 2006 to 2012, Huawei and Vodafone

teamed up on six joint innovation centers. Although

the solutions Huawei and Vodafone develop have been

geared toward solving particular problems, they have

greatly expanded Huawei’s global solution capabilities.

In 2011, the two companies saw an opportunity to link

the joint innovation centers together, thereby enhanc-

ing Huawei’s capability to provide more efficient

global solutions to Vodafone and new customers.

By 2016, Huawei was partnering with a list of

leading European telecom operators that included

Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, BT, Orange, and

Telefónica in 18 joint innovation centers; in all, it had

34 innovation centers around the world. “The joint

innovation centers really changed perceptions of

Huawei from being a follower to being a leader,” a

senior executive at Ericsson said.17 Huawei’s approach

was so successful that competitors such as Ericsson

established joint innovation partnerships of their

own to develop practical and long-term innovations.

HUAWEI’S THREE-STAGE APPROACH In order to make inroads in Europe, Huawei has relied on a three-pronged strategy to attract business and collaborate with leading customers and governments.

• Appeal to resource-challenged customers with practical innovation

• Identify customers with pressing needs

• Offer a practical customization model

• Provide top executive support

• Capture the mainstream market through joint innovation

• Solve a pressing customer need that Western competitors can’t or won’t solve

• Use joint innovation centers (50/50 ownership)

• Save customers money and time

• Offer customized solutions from conception to delivery

• Ground innovation in model citizenship

• Respond to public scrutiny by offering investments that benefit the public

• Launch innovation projects that create skilled jobs and raise R&D investments in the host country

STAGE 1

OFFER CUSTOMIZATION FOR CUSTOMERS WITH CHALLENGING NEEDS

STAGE 2

USE PARTNERSHIPS TO ENTER THE MAINSTREAM

STAGE 3

FOSTER PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

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STAGE 3: Enlist the support of governments,

universities, and other industry stakeholders. The

success of Huawei’s approach to innovation has also

depended on being accepted by governments and

larger industry players. Although it’s common for

multinationals to try to gain the favor of governments

in the countries they seek to do business in by offering

to build local manufacturing facilities, hiring well-

connected local representatives, or launching PR

campaigns,18 Huawei has gone to considerable lengths

to present itself as the kind of partner European gov-

ernments could work with. During the global

financial crisis and the subsequent recession, for ex-

ample, the company maintained high levels of

investment in R&D in Europe and became a cham-

pion for major innovation projects. To consolidate its

market position in Europe, it set up a special public

affairs and communications office in Brussels whose

job is to frame the company’s investments in terms of

how they advance the efforts of European govern-

ments and industry players to meet the global

innovation challenges of the 21st century. In 2013,

Huawei pledged to create 5,500 new jobs in Europe by

2019, which would increase its number of employees

in the European Union by more than 50%. One of

Huawei’s new initiatives is a R&D center in Belgium

that will spearhead and coordinate research around

standards for 5G telecommunications from 18 R&D

sites in Europe. Another is a collaborative effort lo-

cated in Munich, Germany, called Openlab, which

aims to work with partner companies such as Intel

and SAP to drive innovation in areas such as the inter-

net of things, cloud computing, and big data.19

Huawei’s expansion in Europe follows a pattern

that closely resembles the one the company used to

build its position in China: Start at the perimeter and

work toward the center. In Europe, Huawei initially

targeted business opportunities in the United King-

dom and Hungary. Both governments seemed open to

hedging their bets away from European Union

companies and toward China and China-based com-

panies. A big break came at the end of 2005, when

Huawei was awarded a contract to provide transmis-

sion equipment to BT to upgrade its network. In

selecting Huawei as a European supplier, BT gave

Huawei an important boost in the European Union.

Huawei has also benefited from its ties to Hun-

gary.20 In 2009, the company chose to locate its

European distribution center in Hungary, and in

2011 it invested in a logistics center there, serving

Europe, North Africa, Russia, and the Middle

East.21 In the wake of these investments, Hungary

has been instrumental in promoting broader ac-

ceptance of Huawei by other EU governments.

Huawei’s relationship with France has been more

challenging. A 2012 report on cyberdefense by the

French Senate recommended prohibiting the use of

Chinese routers in either French or European telecom-

munications infrastructure.22 In response to France’s

security concerns, Huawei in 2012 vowed to become

more transparent; among other things, it promised to

divulge its source codes to the French and European

governments. In 2014, the company also took an un-

usual position with regard to French taxes. At a time

when global companies such as Google Inc. were being

criticized for not paying their fair share of taxes to the

French government, Huawei France decided to forgo

some of the tax benefits it might have claimed (from

R&D credits and losses). Huawei also made a commit-

ment to invest $1.9 billion in R&D facilities in France

by 2018, which was expected to generate about 2,000

new technical jobs through direct hires and sourcing

from the French tech ecosystem made up of local sup-

pliers, universities, research centers, and startups.

Impediments to Growth Huawei has moved from relative obscurity to being a

significant force in the telecommunications industry

and has shown an ability to work closely with cus-

tomers to solve difficult problems and address their

Huawei’s expansion in Europe follows a pattern that closely resembles the one the company used to build its position in China: Start at the perimeter and work toward the center.

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unmet needs. Despite the company’s market accep-

tance in Europe, though, it has been seriously stymied

in its efforts to break into the telecommunications

equipment market in the United States. Although

Huawei has had cooperative research relationships

with major U.S. companies including IBM, Intel,

Microsoft, and Qualcomm, it has faced questions

about its policies about intellectual property and

about the potential for espionage by China. In

particular, it has faced suspicion from the U.S. gov-

ernment on national security grounds.23

In 2008, a U.S. government panel rejected Hua-

wei’s attempt to acquire 3Com Corp., a maker of

internet router and networking equipment, citing

concerns about national security. 3Com made anti-

hacking computer software for the U.S. military,

among other things, and Huawei is thought to have

ties to the Chinese military.24 Similarly, Huawei was

forced to abandon plans in 2011 to purchase 3Leaf

Systems Inc., a U.S.-based company specializing in

server virtualization solutions.25 Although Huawei

executives including CEO Ren have consistently

denied espionage allegations, saying that Huawei

has no ties to the Chinese government and that it

has never received a request from the Chinese gov-

ernment to spy on the United States, security

concerns continue to limit Huawei’s ability to sell

network equipment to U.S. companies.

Lately, Huawei has been making a strong push to

expand beyond telecommunications equipment

into consumer products. After several years of sup-

plying operators such as Vodafone and Orange

with unbranded handsets, Huawei in 2011 set up a

division to launch branded smartphones and, more

recently, smart watches.26 By the summer of 2016,

the company’s consumer division made up more

than 30% of revenues, and in 2015, it was the first

Chinese company to sell more than 100 million

smartphones in a year.

The extent to which the U.S. intelligence con-

cerns will influence Huawei’s position with other

governments remains to be seen. Australian gov-

ernment officials, for example, have voiced security

concerns and raised the prospect of prohibiting the

use of certain Huawei products in its network

infrastructure.27 So far, Huawei has attempted to tie

its brand closely to innovation and economic

development within the markets in which it does

business. How well it will be able to continue with

this strategy going forward remains to be seen.

Manuel Hensmans is a professor of strategy and innovation at Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management in Brussels, Belgium. Comment on this article at http://sloanreview.mit.edu/x/58219, or contact the author at [email protected].

REFERENCES

1.“Asia Becomes the Top Region for Corporate R&D Spend, According to the 2015 Global Innovation 1000 Study, From Strategy&, PwC’s Strategy Consulting Busi- ness,” press release, Oct. 27, 2015, www.strategyand .pwc.com; also see S.K. Jha, I. Parulkar, R.T. Krishnan, and C. Dhanaraj, “Developing New Products in Emerging Markets,” MIT Sloan Management Review 57, no. 3 (spring 2016): 55-62.

2. See, for instance, S. Awate, M.M. Larsen, and R. Mudambi, “EMNE Catch-Up Strategies in the Wind Turbine Industry: Is There a Trade-Off Between Output and Innovation Capabilities?” Global Strategy Journal 2, no. 3 (August 2012): 205-223; and S. Awate, M.M. Larsen, and R. Mudambi, “Accessing vs. Sourcing Knowledge: A Comparative Study of R&D International- ization Between Emerging and Advanced Economy Firms,” Journal of International Business Studies 46, no. 1 (January 2015): 63-86.

3. D.J. Teece, “Explicating Dynamic Capabilities: The Nature and Microfoundations of (Sustainable) Enterprise Performance,” Strategic Management Journal 28, no. 13 (December 2007): 1319-1350.

4. K.M. Eisenhardt and J.A. Martin, “Dynamic Capabili- ties: What Are They?” Strategic Management Journal 21, no. 10-11 (October-November 2000): 1105-1121.

5. “Thomson Reuters Names the 2014 Top 100 Global

In 2008, a U.S. government panel rejected Huawei’s attempt to acquire 3Com Corp., a maker of internet router and networking equipment, citing concerns about national security.

SLOANREVIEW.MIT.EDU WINTER 2017 MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW 33

Innovators,” press release, Nov. 6, 2014, www.prnewswire .com; and Interbrand, “Best Global Brands 2014,” n.d., www.rankingthebrands.com. For more on the need for Chinese firms to strategically transform, see the Chinese edition of M. Hensmans, G. Johnson, and G. Yip, ”Strategic Transformation,” originally published in Basingstoke, United Kingdom, by Palgrave Macmillan in 2013 and published in Beijing in 2015 by China Machine Press.

6. F.A. Martínez-Jerez, “Rewriting the Playbook for Corpo- rate Partnerships,” MIT Sloan Management Review 55, no. 2 (winter 2014): 63-70.

7. P. Phan, J. Zhou, and E. Abrahamson, “Creativity, Inno- vation, and Entrepreneurship in China,” Management and Organization Review 6, no. 2 (2010): 175-194.

8. J.B. Starr, “Continuing the Revolution: The Political Thought of Mao” (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2015); and C.S.C. Hawes, “The Chinese Transformation of Corporate Culture” (Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge, 2012).

9. C.A. Anderson, “Attributional Style, Depression, and Loneliness: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of American and Chinese Students,” Personality and Social Psychol- ogy Bulletin 25, no. 4 (April 1999): 482-499; and K. Leung, “Beliefs in Chinese Culture,” in “The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Psychology,” ed. M.H. Bond (Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2010), 221-240.

10. Y. Zhou, W. Lazonick, and Y. Sun, eds., “Introduction: China’s Transformation Into Innovation-Nation,” in “China as an Innovation Nation” (Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2016).

11. C. Dongsheng and L. Lili, “Huawei Zhengxiang [The Truth About Huawei]” (Beijing: Xiandai Zhongguo Chuban- she, 2003), 5; T. Tao and W. Chunbo, “The Huawei Story” (Mountain View, California: Sage Publications, 2014); L.V. Gerstner Jr., “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Inside IBM’s Historic Turnaround” (New York City: HarperBusi- ness 2002); and M. Lagace, “Gerstner: Changing Culture at IBM — Lou Gerstner Discusses Changing the Culture at IBM,” Dec. 9, 2002, http://hbswk.hbs.edu.

12. In a 2012 interview, John Lord, chairman of Huawei’s Australian division, described its approach: “We’re devel- oping a model and once that model is mature, that model will be exported to other regions and countries around the world.” See “China’s Huawei Vows to Become More Transparent,” Oct. 24, 2012, www.reuters.com.

13. “Huawei Technologies Has Been Selected by Dutch Operator Telfort B.V. for Its UMTS Roll-Out,” news release, Dec. 9, 2004, http://pr.huawei.com.

14. This was part of a policy of offering extremely high rebates (anywhere from 35% up to 95%) in return for a long-term relationship. Huawei’s top management initially came to Europe to personally offer discounts to potential customers. This practice was considered illegitimate by leading European customers, however, as well as proof of the low-quality, “imitation” reputation of Chinese technology companies. Huawei subsequently hired local account managers. Based on their input, the company ended its discount practices and upgraded its price offering to be in line with European expectations of a quality offering.

15. According to the companies’ annual reports, Huawei has outspent its main European competitors of Ericsson, Nokia, and Alcatel-Lucent in absolute terms since 2010, beating Ericsson even in relative percentage terms since 2015. Nevertheless, Huawei obtains an increasingly large share of its revenues from the less R&D-intensive B2C segment of smartphones.

16. T. Wei, Huawei Technologies vice president of delivery management, interview with the author, Jan. 10, 2015.

17. Ericsson executive, interview with the author, June 5, 2015.

18. See, for example, J. Cherry, “Korean Multinationals in Europe” (Surrey, United Kingdom: Curzon Press, 2001); and M. Mason and D. Encarnation, eds., “Does Ownership Matter?: Japanese Multinationals in Europe” (Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1994). On lobbying and localization of personnel, see Y. Hamada, “The Impact of the Traditional Business–Government Relationship on the Europeanization of Japanese Firms,” Journal of European Public Policy 14, no. 3 (April 2007): 404-421.

19. R. Ding, “Open Innovation for a Better Connected World,” November 2015, www.huawei.com; and C. Gnam, “Munich Becomes Europe’s Leading Hub for IoT,” Invest in Bavaria (blog), March 21, 2016, www.invest-in- bavaria.com.

20. “Beijing Considers Hungary Bridgehead to Europe, Says Chinese Formin,” Oct. 29, 2014, http://dailynewshungary.com.

21. “Hungarian PM Welcomes Upgrade to Huawei Logistics Center,” Dec. 3, 2013, www.chinadaily.com.

22. Sénat, “Rapport d’information de M. Jean-Marie Bockel, fait au nom de la commission des affaires étrangères, de la défense et des forces armées,” July 18, 2012, www.senat.fr.

23. See, for example, “The Company That Spooked the World,” The Economist, Aug. 4, 2012; and M. Kan, “China’s Huawei and ZTE Grilled by U.S. Committee Over Spying Concerns,” Sept. 14, 2012, www.pcworld.com.

24. S.R. Weisman, “Sale of 3Com to Huawei Is Derailed by U.S. Security Concerns,” The New York Times, Feb. 21, 2008.

25. M. Kan, “China’s Huawei to Reverse Controversial Deal for 3Leaf,” Feb. 19, 2011, www.pcworld.com.

26. L. Lucas, “Huawei’s Smartwatch Tries to Win the West,” Financial Times, Sept. 26, 2016.

27. B. Grubb, “Telcos Could Face Huawei Ban, Malcolm Turnbull Confirms,” Sydney Morning Herald, July 27, 2015; and A. Coyne, “Australian MPs Still Scared of Huawei,” Oct. 17, 2016, www.itnews.com.au.

i. See also M. Hensmans and G. Liu, “How Do the Normativity of Headquarters and the Knowledge Autonomy of Subsidiaries Co-Evolve?” iCite working paper WP2016-020, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium, Oct. 11, 2016, https://ideas.repec.org.

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