Study On The Strategic Decision Of Chinese Agricultural Enterprises "Going Global" With Central And Eastern European Countries As The Target Market

Since the "Going Global" strategy was formally proposed in 2001,the pace of internationalization of Chinese agricultural enterprises has been accelerating.The introduction of the strategic objective of "accelerating the cultivation of large grain merchants and agribusiness groups with international competitiveness" has highlighted the national level's determination to support agricultural enterprises to participate in international competition and signaled the importance of agricultural enterprises going global.However,as the process of Chinese agricultural enterprises going global continues to accelerate,some issues have emerged that cannot be ignored,particularly the complex and volatile international environment,which has posed strategic decision-making challenges for enterprises.The Central and Eastern European(CEE)region is currently an important emerging market in the world.Although China and CEE countries have an excellent historical and practical foundation for agricultural cooperation,which has created favorable conditions for agricultural enterprises to enter the CEE market,the research conducted on the market environment of CEE countries is relatively insufficient to provide adequate support for agricultural enterprises to make strategic decisions on "going global" for the region.Based on the above background,this study conducts a study on the strategic decisionmaking of agricultural enterprises to go global based on environmental scanning by integrating dynamic capability theory,institutional theory,and spatial interaction theory.Firstly,this study applied keyword cluster analysis and density analysis to comb through the literature on the impact of environmental scanning on strategic decision-making,Chinese agricultural enterprises going global,and the market environment of CEE countries.Based on the literature review,the development history of agricultural enterprises entering the CEE market is reviewed by applying the systematic analysis method,and the current situation of Chinese agricultural enterprises' development and "going global" is analyzed by applying the big data analysis method,and the development of agriculture in China and CEE countries is explored in three dimensions: agricultural resource endowment,agricultural input status,and agricultural production status.The study found there is a lack of research on Chinese agricultural enterprises' strategic decision-making towards the CEE countries.Based on this,this study will attempt to answer the following questions:(1)the objective status of the market environment in CEE countries;(2)the potential opportunities for Chinese agricultural enterprises to entry CEE market;(3)the potential market size for Chinese agricultural enterprises to choose CEE countries as the target market;(4)What are the feasible market entry strategies for Chinese agricultural enterprises based on a systematic environmental scan of CEE countries.Secondly,based on the complexity,ambiguity,and dynamism of the environment(Jiao et al.,2021),the environmental scanning process is divided into three stages: market environment analysis,multidimensional distance analysis,and cooperation potential analysis.These three stages do not exist in isolation;each stage builds on the previous one and has a logical progression.This study selects panel data related to the market environment of China and CEE countries from 2009 to 2018,and applies a BP neural network model to evaluate the market environment of CEE countries.On this basis,a multidimensional distance evaluation system was built by selecting indicators related to institutional distance and resource complementarity.The impact of multidimensional distance in the market environment of China and CEE countries on agricultural enterprises going abroad was discussed through regression analysis.The results are visualized using Arc GIS software.The dynamics of the economic scale are then introduced to measure the potential of agricultural cooperation between the two sides.The study finds that,firstly,the CEE countries show a wide range of different characteristics in terms of market environment.Firstly,in terms of the level of market environment,the three northern CEE countries have a significant advantage,followed by the four CEE hinterland countries,then the nine southern CEE countries.Secondly,in terms of economic resource complementarity,the four CEE hinterland countries have the strongest complementarity with China,followed by the nine CEE southern countries,then the three CEE northern countries.Third,in terms of technological resource complementarity,the three northern CEE countries are the least complementary to China,followed by the four CEE hinterland countries,then the nine southern CEE countries.Fourth,in terms of agricultural cooperation potential,the four CEE hinterland countries have the highest potential for agricultural cooperation with China,followed by the nine CEE southern countries,then the three CEE northern countries.Finally,this study constructs a "going global" strategic decision matrix for agricultural enterprises based on the environmental scanning perspective from three dimensions: market environment,multi-dimensional distance and cooperation potential,analyzes the market profiles,challenges,and opportunities of different CEE segments,and proposes market entry strategies for agricultural enterprises in different categories of CEE countries.Through the strategic matrix analysis,this study suggests that Chinese agricultural enterprises can adopt an aggressive market entry strategy by taking the four countries in the CEE hinterland as the core stronghold;an innovative and cooperative market entry strategy by taking the three countries in the northern part of CEE as the technological highland;and a steady market entry strategy by taking the nine countries in the southern part of CEE as the natural resources' platform.By applying environmental scanning to the strategic decision-making of Chinese agricultural enterprises going abroad,this study enriches the micro-foundations of dynamic capability theory from the perspectives of sensing and sizing.At the same time,this study provides viable support for agricultural enterprises to go global.The main innovations are as below.Firstly,most of the existing studies on international market entry strategies and environmental scanning are based on the practical results of enterprises in developed countries.This study is the first to examine the strategic decision-making of Chinese agricultural enterprises with CEE countries as their "going global" target markets,which provide support for agricultural enterprises to seize potential opportunities in the CEE market.Secondly,this study proposes a three-stage environmental scanning framework including market environment analysis,multi-dimensional distance analysis,and cooperation potential analysis.This study conducts in-depth research on different dimensions,which is of great value in improving the match between the strategic decision of agricultural enterprises "going global" with the external environment.Thirdly,this study takes the market environment of Central and Eastern European countries as the entry point and basis for research,and helps agricultural enterprises to build a practical path for making "going out" strategic decisions based on environmental scanning.In the past,research on the strategic decision-making of agricultural enterprises to go global has often focused more on enterprises' internal resources and capabilities.Apparently,this study has enriched the perspectives and ideas of research on the strategic decision-making of agricultural enterprises "going global".Fourthly,with the help of big data and artificial intelligence research methods,this study explores the environmental scanning method when agricultural enterprises facing a large amount of unstructured market information during going global.By implementing environmental scanning research methodology to integrate multiple sources of information,it supports agricultural enterprises in obtaining the information needed for "going global" strategic decision-making.