Summary and future research

The study has integrated the three topics of Chinese companies, goinginternational and brand management, an integration which is a new field of research. Since China, Chinese companies and Chinese brands gain large public media attention and are often topic at meetings in US and Western European companies, thus the findings of the study are relevant for many different audiences. Because Chinese companies traditionally have a talent to demonstrate strengths and to hide weaknesses (e.g., Bartsch 2005: 54), this study wants to contribute to transparency. The study has shown that there is not one Chinese market and not one way of Chinese brand management. The study has also shown that it is neither true that Chinese companies are unable to perform brand management, nor that Chinese brands will overstock the US and WE markets in the short-term.

The study has identified three different types of Chinese global brand management. Type I includes companies that are highly independent form the Chinese government and have demonstrated a high quality in their brand management in US and WE markets. They prioritise long-term brand building as a key corporate goal and implement it by a coherent system of strategic and operative brand measures. They are willing to support their global brand building by larger investments and are open for reorganisations towards a global market orientation and international management teams. As a result they hold leading global market positions, and achieve significant brand equity in US and WE markets in a short-time frame. In this study, type I is represented by Lenovo.