ACED - Completed granted projects

01/10/2008 - 30/06/2013

Abstract
The role of China in the world economy evolves rapidly. There is much uncertainty about the effects of the rise of China on the Belgian and Dutch economies. In this study, the effect of the rise of China on specific Belgian and Dutch enterprises and industries will be investigated in depth by collecting unique data that will be analyzed with advanced econometrics.

At the industry level, the focus will be on the following set of three sub-projects:

1. The comparative (dis)advantage of the industries in China, Belgium and the Netherlands will be identified, based on multi-dimensional indicators.
2. Subsequently, comparative analyses across industries and countries will be conducted to identify the industries in Belgium and the Netherlands that are likely to benefit or suffer from the rise of China. In so doing, patterns of comparative (dis)advantages will be revealed.
3. The characteristics of the key industries of both types, featuring a comparative advantage or disadvantage, in the three countries will be identified. From there, the specific determinants of comparative (dis)advantage of industries in Belgium and the Netherlands will be explored by using advanced multivariate panel data estimation techniques. Specifically, these analyses will be used to pin down the China impact for different industries in both countries.

Based on the findings from this pair of sub-projects, policy implication in the realm of industrial restructuring in Belgium and the Netherlands will be evaluated, from both the perspective of opportunities and threats. Subsequently, based on the findings from the industry-level studies, we will select a sub-set of industries within which we will carry out a series of firm-level analyses. Here, we will zoom in on the (lack of) competitiveness of Belgian and Dutch enterprises that face opportunities and threats in and from China. At the firm level, the following set of three issues will be investigated:

1. Impact of China on Belgian and Dutch firm’s competitiveness / performance / vitality will be analyzed for the set of competitive and vulnerable industries, with an emphasis on comparison across competitive and vulnerable industries. Here, we will focus on comparing outward versus inward-oriented enterprises – that is, Belgian and Dutch firms that either face Chinese competition locally or enter into China to explore foreign opportunities.
2. The characteristics of the key enterprises of both types, featuring a competitive advantage or disadvantage, in the three countries will be identified. From there, the determinants of competitiveness of Belgian and Dutch enterprises will be explored, again by using advanced multivariate panel data estimation techniques. Specifically, these analyses will be used to pin down the China impact for different enterprises in both countries.
3. Based on the findings from this pair of firm-level sub-projects, strategy implication in the realm of strategic reorientation of Belgian and Dutch enterprises will be evaluated, from the perspective of both opportunities and threats.

Funding(s)
BOF

Researcher(s)
Principal investigator: van Witteloostuijn Arjen
Ad van den Oord

Collaborators
Chaohong Zhou, University of Utrecht
Jianhong Zhang, Nyenrode Business School

Research team(s)
ACED/Management