Business Key Success Factors in China and the West

African Journal of Business Managem ent Vol. 5(22), pp. 9363-9369, 30 September, 2011
Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM
DOI: 11.5897/AJBM11.1140
ISSN 1993-8233 ©2011 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Business key success factors in China and the West
Hung-Chen Huang1, Kestutis Bruzga2* and Ya-Ping Wang3
1

School of Continuing Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Global Strategy, College of Management, National Taiwan Normal
University, Taipei, Taiwan.
3
Department of Technology Management, Chung Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.

2

Accepted 3 August, 2011

The study researched business key success factors (KSFs) in China and the West. Researchers reviewed 30 prior studies related to business KSFs in China and 30 prior studies related to business
KSFs in the West. In addition, one focus group and one individual depth interview were conducted to further investigate business KSFs in China. Six business KSFs divided into three levels according to their importance were distinguished in China: leadership, research, development, and innovation, business strategy, market demand, human resources management and development, and corporate culture. The top priority business KSF in Chin a is leadership. In order to be successful, companies in
China must give it considerable attention. Business KSFs in the West do not directly transform into business KSFs in China, and Western companies should be aware of it when conducting business in
China.
Key words: Business key success factors, China, West.

INTRODUCTION
The past f ew years were turbulent in the world economy.
As the outcome of the global financial crisis that started in
2008, year 2009 was the first year since the end of the
W orld W ar II that global output contracted – world economy gross domestic product (GDP) declined by
0.7% (CIA, The World Factbook, World). Meanwhile, in

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