Call for papers for a special issue of the EJIR: China’s influence on industrial relations in Europe and beyond

Abstract

Overview

The global rise of China in the last three decades has reshuffled power dynamics in the global economy, including the global balance of power in employment relations. Since 2000, global FDI inflows into China have more than quadrupled, but also, something less noticed by research, China’s FDI outflows have increased more than hundredfold, and by 2015 had overtaken the inward flows (UNCTAD data).

A growing body of research has sought to shed light on the implications of Chinese investments to employment relations in their overseas subsidiaries in both advanced and emerging economies (Cooke et al., 2019; Lee, 2017), leading to challenges to both the management and employees at the company level, in terms of adoption of human resource management practices (Drahokoupil, 2017; Zhang and Edwards, 2007), adaptation to local institutions (Khan et al., 2019), union-management relations (Zhu, 2015) and so on. Despite turbulence in EU/UK-China relations over the past few years, China remains a key trade partner with current and former member states of the EU and an emerging contributor of foreign direct investment within the bloc. Throughout the 2010s, there has been a surge in Chinese multinational corporations setting up European subsidiaries via mergers and acquisitions (Zheng and Smith, 2017) and establishing operations in greenfield sites, especially in technologically advanced and strategic sectors such as ICT and advanced manufacturing (Pawlicki, 2017; Pawlicki and Luo, 2017).

While a ‘light-touch’ and reactive approach to human resource management and conflict resolution have been observed among Chinese investors in European subsidiaries at early stages of acquisition (Bian and Emons, 2017; Miedtank, 2017), longer-term changes to working conditions, employment relations, and power relations at the firm level and beyond caused by the rise of Chinese MNCs need further investigation (Pawlicki, 2017). In addition, how unions and other industrial relations stakeholder respond to the managerial practices of Chinese investors also need deeper investigation. Given the heterogeneity of national contexts across Europe, especially against the background of varying degrees of alignment in economic and political interests with China under the Belt and Road Initiative among different European countries, looking at the dynamics between the states in China and the host countries, Chinese MNCs (whether it be based in mainland China or beyond) and their subsidiaries, and trade unions at firm and industry levels (Andrijasevic et al., 2020) would be crucial for understanding the ways in which Chinese investment would bring significant impacts to employment relations in Europe and beyond.

Call for papers

This special issue welcomes submissions which bring theoretical, empirical and methodological novelties to our current understanding of the Chinese influence on employment relations overseas, with a particular focus on, but not limited to, Europe (including the UK). Papers taking a comparative approach are strongly encouraged. Research questions of interest may cover but are not limited to:

• What is the current state of industrial relations in Chinese-invested companies based in Europe and beyond? How are they shaped by states management, and trade unions? What are the peculiarities in managerial attitudes and behaviour in exercising managerial control at work? How can private Chinese investments be compared with their state-owned counterparts in terms of their industrial relations?

• To what extent industrial relations in Chinese-invested companies are influenced by host countries’ institutions, politics, and work cultures? To what extent are they shaped by home countries’ labour practices and politics?

• How are trade unions and employer associations at different levels responding to foreign direct investment from China? What are the drivers behind varying degrees of cooperation and resistance?

• How are discourses around China and Chinese capital shaped among workers, and how do these discourses influence workers’ actions under the current socio-political context?

• To what extent does the presence of Chinese capital in Europe and other parts of the world challenge the industrial relations systems in different varieties of capitalism?

• What are the methodological challenges of research on Chinese capital in Europe and of Europe-China comparisons? How can they be overcome?

• How does the Chinese model of industrial relations inform new insights into existing theoretical frameworks of comparative employment relations?

Schedule and submission process

Articles should be submitted via mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ejd , indicating that it is for the Special Issue on China and industrial relations

Submission open – December 2021

Deadline – 30 June 2022

The Special Issue is expected to be published in 2024. Enquires can be addressed to any of the editors.

References

Andrijasevic

Sacchetto

Pun

(2020) One firm, two countries, one workplace model? The case of Foxconn’s internationalisation. The Economic and Labour Relations Review 31(2): 262–278.

Bian

Emons

(2017) Chinese investments in Germany: increasing in line with Chinese industrial policy. In: Drahokoupil

(ed) Chinese Investment in Europe: Corporate Strategies and Labour Relations. Brussels: The European Trade Union Institute, 157–177.

Cooke

Liu

, et al. (2019) Human resource management and industrial relations in multinational corporations in and from China: challenges and new insights. Human Resource Management 58(5): 455–471.

Drahokoupil

(2017) Introduction. In: Drahokoupil

(ed) Chinese Investment in Europe: Corporate Strategies and Labour Relations. Brussels: The European Trade Union Institute, 7–17.

Khan

Wood

Tarba

, et al. (2019) Human resource management in Chinese multinationals in the United Kingdom: the interplay of institutions, culture, and strategic choice. Human Resource Management 58(5): 473–487.

Lee

(2017) The Specter of Global China: Politics, Labor, and Foreign Investment in Africa. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

Miedtank

(2017) International human resource management and employment relations of Chinese MNCs. In: Drahokoupil

(ed) Chinese Investment in Europe: Corporate Strategies and Labour Relations. Brussels: The European Trade Union Institute, 79–95.

Pawlicki

(2017) Challenger multinationals in telecommunications: Huawei and ZTE. In: Drahokoupil

(ed) Chinese Investment in Europe: Corporate Strategies and Labour Relations. Brussels: The European Trade Union Institute, 21–40.

Pawlicki

Luo

(2017) China’s cars and parts: development of an industry and strategic focus on Europe. In: Drahokoupil

(ed) Chinese Investment in Europe: Corporate Strategies and Labour Relations. Brussels: The European Trade Union Institute, 41–59.

10.

Zhang

Edwards

(2007) Diffusing ‘best practice’ in Chinese multinationals: the motivation, facilitation and limitations. The International Journal of Human Resource Management 18(12): 2147–2165.

11.

Zheng

Smith

(2017) Chinese Multinational Corporations in Europe: racing to the bottom? Made in China 2(3): 26–31.

12.

Zhu

(2015) Chinese multinational corporations’ responses to host country trade unions: an eclectic approach. Journal of Industrial Relations 57(2): 232–249.