Strength and Tenacity: Research on Reputation Building of Chinese State-owned Enterprises in the U.S.

The state-owned enterprises (SOEs) play important roles in China’s “going global” strategy, and their reputation is closely related to China’s national image. This book examines the reputation of Chinese SOEs from the perspective of communication. Based on the total corporate communications approach, this book suggests that corporate reputation is affected by a three-part system process. Meanwhile, the book regards institutional environment as underlying factors in the process. Focusing on the U.S. market, this book conducts case studies on two representative enterprises, China Construction America and China Railway Rolling Stock America Corporation. Results show that the two enterprises have developed different reputation effects but faced similar problems. On the one hand, the institutional power of the U.S. has effects on media coverage trends, which poses a challenge for Chinese SOEs to establish legitimacy. On the other hand, Chinese SOEs are lack of initiative in reputation building, making it difficult to create comprehensive reputation systems. Based on above analysis, the book proposes a model of reputation building for overseas Chinese SOEs. Hopefully, it may provide references for academic exploration and corporate practices.