A master thesis from Aalborg University
Challenges and Opportunities for Chinese Manufacturing SMEs and Danish Mechanical Engineering Servicing SMEs in the Time of COVID-19
Author(s)
Term
4. Term
Publication year
2021
Submitted on
2021-06-15
Pages
64 pages
Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the impact of COVID-19 to the internationalizing process of Chinese manufacturing SMEs and Danish mechanical engineering service SMEs and identify the respective challenges and opportunities in two industries coming from the impact of COVID-19, ending with strategic implications for diminish the challenges and augmenting the opportunities in two respective industries in COVID-19 Design/ Methodology/ approach: 2 Chinese manufacturing SMEs in Shenzhen and 1 Danish mechanical engineering service SME in Skanderborg are observed and analyzed in a case-by-case manner by utilizing qualitative approach. Findings: The decoding and interpretation to the collected empirical data underlined the common challenges (barriers in transportation of goods, the rising costs and the fluctuating demands from the impact of COVID-19, along with unique opportunities in specific industries arising from the impact of COVID-19, i.e., the strategic shift of production line in terms of printing papers from Southeast Asian countries to China, Danish manufacturing firms have a strong desire to optimize the efficiency of their production machines and purchase the robotics to replace the manual production. Practical implications: The findings contribute to reveal the empirical connotation in mechanical engineering consulting SME internationalization in Danish context in COVID-19, together with the empirical hint in Chinese manufacturing SME internationalization in Chinese context in COVID-19 about mitigating the challenges and increase the opportunities. Contribution & Value Added: This study observes SME internationalization in regional Chinese context (i.e., Shenzhen) and regional Danish context (i.e., Skanderborg) in the time of COVID-19 that are limitedly researched in existing literatures. Moreover, the comparison between Chinese market and Danish market provides an insight for international players at bi-national level in COVID-19. Besides, three selected internationalization theories are combined, that are the networking theory, the Uppsala model or as known as the stage theory and the perspective of resource-based view and within specifically manufacturing and mechanical engineering service sector.
Keywords
Documents
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