Important strategic opportunities

China and Germany have significantly different
political, legal, and economic environments. Linguistic and
intercultural barriers make it difficult for Chinese investors
to enter the German market. Chinese companies are used to
a culture where relationships and networks can be exploited
very flexibly and profitably. In Germany, they need to adj ust their attitude in this respect, since relationships play an
entirely different role in Germany and can replace formal
processes only in the rarest of cases (Jungbluth 2014a: 255).
Takeovers also require the integration of two very differ-
ent corporate structures and cultures.

Since the leadership
styles, business concepts, and methods used by Chinese and
German managers differ significantly, the problems here
are often greater than with mergers of two companies in
the same or similar cultures (Reisach 2016: 20-21, 23). This
is also reflected in the media coverage of Chinese invest-
ment in Germany, which may well be described as tenden-
tious, as seen in the sensational headlines sampled above.
There is next to no comparable reporting about investors
from other countries.

For Chinese companies in Germany,
this is a difficult situation because they are, on the one
hand, not accustomed to critical press coverage and, on the
other hand, they fear a negative impact on their reputations
(Kunkel 2015: 3).