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Paper info: Foreign law firms in China: the role of relationships and networks

Title


Foreign law firms in China: the role of relationships and networks

Authors


Alessandro Pagano and Roberta Bocconcelli

Place of Publication


The paper was published at the 28th IMP-conference in Rome, Italy in 2012.

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Abstract


Despite the growing role of law firms in the economic system and the increasing international scale of their activities, thus far very limited research has been conducted on global law firms’ market entry and development process in emerging markets. The main objective of this paper is to contribute to fill this gap providing empirical evidence on the market entry and further development process of global law firms in leading emerging markets. To achieve this goal this paper examines the “embedding process” of main Italian law firms in the Chinese market. In order to frame the empirical analysis this paper adopts the business network model of internationalization processes, as recently proposed as a revision of the Uppsala model. The research methodology is qualitative and is based on the development of five case-studies of leading Italian law firms active in the Chinese market. Preliminary findings highlight, as the business network model underlines, the role of networks in the selection of the foreign market and in the implementation of the presence in China by Italian law firms. In this respect, learning processes play a relevant role in the “embedding process” in terms of accumulation of experience and acquisition of contextual knowledge. Preliminary empirical results show also the relevance of the adoption of ad hoc internal organizational mechanisms to strengthen the commitment to relationships with customers and partners.