Study On Cross-cultural Management Of Chinese Private Enterprises In Africa: Case From Tanzania

Under the influence of economic and diplomatic strategies such as the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, the Belt and Road Initiative and the National Capacity Relocation, China-invested enterprises, especially a great number of private enterprises have entered Africa, and have actively participated in the economic development of Africa. However, what has come with that is lots of questionings and attacks including looting of African energy, occupying the African market with cheap goods, especially serious impact on local textile industry by textile exports to Africa which resulted in business failures and unemployment; and the third, promoting China’s economic development model to African countries. Based on this, we chose a textile processing enterprise in Tanzania as an example in this paper, in a way like dissecting a sparrow, to analyze the management and production problems encountered by Chinese private enterprises when they invested in Africa and the solutions they adopted, as well as logic and impact of such selected solutions.An economic phenomenon is also a social phenomenon. People are the essential element for enterprises to go out, so the paper chose social interface analysis of actor theory as the core research method, through the analysis of the interaction between various actors and factors like resources, goals and value, to find the important social interfaces of China invested enterprises in Africa and their causal and interlocked interactions. This method was first seen in Dutch scholar Norman Long’s study on agricultural promotion projects. The method used in the research of cross-cultural management in the foreign investment by enterprises in this paper is both an innovation and a bold attempt.Reviewing the literature, it can be found that cross-cultural management in foreign investment was often hindered by cultural differences, which are mainly expressed in terms of values, beliefs, customs, habits, etc. Different values and epistemology lead to different policies and regulations developed by different countries as well as their behavior. Faced with these obstacles to cross-cultural management, cultural convergence has been achieved by western countries via a complete intervention system in which they macroscopically change the ideology of host countries (mostly developing countries) mainly through international development assistance and microscopically conduct programs in culture, education, capacity building and rural development to improve cultural identity through grass root non-governmental organizations. This long-term, frequent cultural intervention helps the landing and production of multinational enterprises objectively, leaving their enterprises much more vulnerable to cultural barriers than Chinese ones. So how shall Chinese enterprises overcome the impact brought by cultural differences? According to literature study, there is no complete intervention system for Chinese enterprises to manage cross-cultural conflicts in their foreign investment, but there is miceo level fixing process. This paper focuses on using the method of studying social interface of actor theory to explain the process of this finxing process.There are three types of China-invested enterprises in Tanzania. The first is the state-owned enterprises responsible for implementing Chinese government’s assistance projects such as free aid and concessional loans to Tanzania; the second is the private enterprises with investment in Tanzania; the third is a large number of small and micro-private enterprises engaged in commercial activities. The second type is China’s main force for investment in Tanzania, and is the focus of the analysis in this paper. The economic development integrating assistance, investment and trade is what happened in China, so China is sharing its experience while having economic interaction with Africa, which is the best example of South-South cooperation in Tanzania. This macro-level knowledge sharing demonstrates the central role of transfer of knowledge in the social interface, and also verifies the central role of transfer of knowledge in the social interface in sideways.Chinese private enterprises, especially small and medium private enterprises are characterized by limited investment experience, small-scale investment, small number of employment, and extensive mode of production, which, though enabling the enterprises flexible in production, signifying the business managers are "capable in production while weak in management". The weak management is embodied in four aspects:lack of information capture, lack of basic communication skills, and lack of the ability to resolve labor conflicts and corporate social contradictions. In these difficulties, though enterprises may temporarily ease the contradictions in production through their existing experience and knowledge, corporate cross-cultural investment management conflicts have not been thoroughly solved because of temporariness, randomness, non-professionalism, instability, conservatism and multiple identities of social interfaces elected by enterprise managers. Therefore, based on the analysis of cross-cultural management of private enterprises from the perspective of social interface, non-professional social interface is the inevitable consequence of private enterprises which are aggressive in conduct and disordered in management. For private enterprises in Africa, they have "gone out" for a short time, and are still in the primary stage of internationalization. Although they are stimulating the local employment, they are lack of experience and knowledge, sense of social responsibility and advocacy in a obvious manner in their production and management. A reform in the following three aspect is recommended to enhance the harmonious development of enterprises, society and people:develop China Chamber of Commerce by improving its capacity and providing t legal assistance and training to Chinese enterprises before they go out; both governments should strengthen supervision and management to guide the sustainable development of enterprises; enterprises should develop partners due to their own advantages and participate in the economic and social development of the invested countries through public-private partnership (PPP).