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One firm, two countries, one workplace model? The case of Foxconn’s internationalisation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Rutvica Andrijasevic ,
Devi Sacchetto  and
Ngai Pun
Rutvica Andrijasevic
Affiliation:
University of Bristol, UK
Devi Sacchetto*
Affiliation:
University of Padua, Italy
Ngai Pun
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
*
Devi Sacchetto, Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology, University of Padua, Via M. Cesarotti 12, 35123 Padova, Italy. Email: devi.sacchetto@unipd.it
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Abstract

This article aims to provide insight into the employment relations in China-based multinational companies internationalising to Europe, a still relatively unexplored topic. We investigate the transfer of work and employment practices from Foxconn’s manufacturing headquarters in mainland China to its subsidiaries in Czechia and the factors that influence the firm’s internationalisation of production. By drawing upon original ethnographic fieldwork, the study makes a two-fold contribution. First, it shows the analytical inadequacy of the ‘latecomer’ model which assumes that the Chinese firm is an asset seeker. Second, it illustrates the relevance of diversity of labour and non-institutionalised forms of workers’ agency for theorisation of internationalisation. These topics are still insufficiently addressed by the literature that favours managerial agency and the model of distinctive and stable national labour forces. The study contributes to the theoretical debates on internationalisation by illustrating the limits of the national institutionalist perspective, the importance of considering a multi-scalar analytical framework and the relevance of labour composition in shaping multinational employment relations.

Keywords

J61J42L23Chinese work and employment practicesFoxconninternationalisation of productionmigrant workersworkers’ agency
Type
Further Refereed Articles
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 31 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Capitalism after Communism: Europe & the World 1989 - 2019 , June 2020 , pp. 262 - 278
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

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