Place-based and Place-bound Realities: A Chinese Firm's Embeddedness in Tanzania

Abstract

The paper presents a single case study of how one Chinese firm operates in Dar es Salaam and how the firm's embeddedness and unique managerial style in the local context affect local benefits for Tanzanian employees. The results demonstrate the need to fill a gap in the knowledge about Chinese economic activities in Africa, particularly in relation to the cultural constructs present in manager-employee interactions. The findings paint a picture of a firm that intends to localize its business strategies and engage a local labour force, but similarly reveals the inherent cultural, behavioural and social norms of Chinese management, which may create organizational challenges and power differentials in the workplace.

Intra-Migrant Economy: Chinese Restaurant Entrepreneurship and Zimbabwean Migrant Workers In South Africa

“…For instance, when restaurants get too busy, Chinese servers yell out orders instead of walking into the kitchen as a way to save time. In fact, I found my ethnographic data often shared similarities or overlapped with other case studies conducted in other parts of Africa, like Botswana(Zi 2017), Tanzania(Men 2014), and Zambia(Wu 2014).…”

“…While most Zimbabwean employees find the Chinese unfriendly and lacking the ability to show affection, Chinese employers find Zimbabweans' directness (e.g., demanding a higher salary or disobeying an order they don't agree with) to be abrupt and rude. I found my ethnographic data often shared similarities or overlapped with other case studies conducted in Africa (Men 2014;Sheridan 2018;Sun 2017;Wu 2014;Zi 2017 In the latter chapter, I emphasized conflicts between Chinese employers and employees to highlight the fact that there will always be conflicts in any employer- etiquette. This is where the Chinese employees have an advantage over the Zimbabwean employees, as they are able to get along better with Chinese employers.…”

“…China is now Africa's largest trade partner and the largest financier of infrastructure, and Chinese entrepreneurs are flooding in all over the continent (Park 2012;Sun 2017). Tanny Men (2014) notices an increasing awareness and willingness to employ more local labourers among (both state-led and private) Chinese firms across Africa.…”

“…Therefore, they have to catch their employees when they are doing wrong and correct them immediately, regardless of the presence or absence of customers in the shop. (2017, 164) TannyMen's (2014) research was based on a Chinese company in Dar es Salaam.…”

Foreign Direct Investment Spillover Effect on China’s Sustainable Development

“…This article will comprehensively review and organize previous research results on FDI, sustainable development and spillover effects in China and abroad and summarize the relevant data to lay a theoretical foundation for this research. This work will then focus on the spillover effect of FDI on China's sustainable development [6]. Combining the findings with typical cases, practical opinions and suggestions for China's FDI and sustainable development are offered that have certain practical significance and reference value.…”