Strategies for international construction related consultancy firms to compete in China

Foreign construction-related consultancy firms (hereinafter referred to as 'foreign firms') need to utilize appropriate business strategies to enhance their competitive advantages in China. The aims of this research are to investigate the critical strategies and important practices for foreign firms to achieve competitive performance in China. The research method is based on a structured questionnaire survey and data were collected via postal survey. The results also show that foreign firms compete in two dimensions in China: quantitative performance and qualitative performance. Among the determinants of competitiveness, differentiation, cost leadership, and risk responsiveness are found to have positive impacts on firm's qualitative performance. Cost leadership and market-oriented swiftness have positive impacts on firm's quantitative performance. Client-oriented swiftness and resource-network are found have negative impacts on competiveness. In China, foreign firms need to adopt a combination of both Western and Eastern strategies and use appropriate practices to enhance their competitive performance.