An overview of the management consulting firms of the Spanish company in China: company profile and success and failure factors

Abstract

This article explores the vision of Management Consulting Firms (MCF) specialized in internationalization processes of Spanish companies in China. The main objective is to shed light on a process full of uncertainty as is international expansion into emerging markets on the point of view of the advisors of that process. First, it is analyzed whether there is a Spanish company profile that is internationalized toward China in terms of sector of activity, size and experience in international business. And second, with their client’s experiences, success and failure factors in the internationalization process are studied. To achieve those objectives in depth interviews were held with partners and managers of six Management Consulting Firms with Spanish clients in their portfolio. As a result it is concluded that the sectors where the Spanish company has invested are several, the size of the company is important to undertake an implementation process in China and its international experience as well. Eight key factors were found relevant to invest in China successfully.  Five factors are related with their resources (humans and financials) and the other three are related with their strategy. The main reasons of failure are also discussed. The article provides an outside perspective on the reasons why an internationalization process is successful and other fails.