multinational firms. Both parties of the co-authors are from China. The authors have
been studying here in Sweden for almost two years now. To some extent, this cultural
background helps the authors to have a better understanding of both Sweden culture
and Chinese culture. Therefore, it is reasonable for us to select a multinational
corporation which has branches both in China and Sweden. The sample company
(company X) is a medium-sized company with about 200 employees, and it is one of
the famous companies in office appliance manufacture industry in Europe. Company
X owns several subsidiary companies in other countries, one of which is in China.
This Chinese branch is located in Shanghai which is one of the fastest developing
regions in China and has about 400 employees. And it was a state-owned factory and
had a good reputation in office appliance industry. Back in 1998, when this Swedish
company bought 51% share of this company, it became a joint venture with this
Swedish company. And later in 2002, Chinese subsidiary was totally bought out by
the Swedish company and became a subsidiary of the latter.