1. The Brand Strategy Stage (1984.12-1991.12): Haier improved quality to highlight own advantages compared with other corporations. Establishment of “Haier” brand in the domestic market can make “Haier” have wide reorganization in the domestic market.
2. The Diversification Strategy Stage (1991.12-1998.12): Product was expanded from one kind to many kinds. In the expansion of the scale, products began to “going out” to open the international market. The market focused on strength very much, especially in the international market. If one corporation wanted consumers to choose it from many other brands, in addition to the high quality and good service, it also must have the ability to compete with its competitors.
3. The Internationalization Strategy Stage: In this stage, the products were sold to major economic markets in the world and created global factories overseas. The strategy in this stage changed from the “going out” to the “going up”, making Haier become an international corporation.
4. Globalization Brand Strategy Stage (2005.12-2012.12): In this stage, every kind of product became an international brand. In every market, Haier were to become the local brand, and became international famous brand.
5. Network Strategy Stage (2012-2019): Haier came into the network market, and became a network corporation. (Pan Yunliang & Su Fangwen, 2007:240)
Haier America was founded after the establishment of the American Haier Industrial Park in the South Carolina in 1984. The park covered an area of 700 mu, with an annual output capacity of 500,000 sets. Haier America opened the market gradually with high quality and personalized design. Haier bought Greenwich Bank Building in New York City as the headquarters of North America on March 5, 2002, which represented that Haier would root in America. At present, products of Haier have settled in the United States successfully and become the top 10 chain group in the USA. At the same time, Haier received the honor of “best supplier”. Besides, the social contributions of Haier in the United States are also recognized and praised by the local government. The South Carolina donated a road in the city named “Haier Avenue” to thank for the contribution Haier made to the local economy. “Haier Avenue” is the first American road named after a Chinese domestic corporation. However, the development of Haier America is not always smooth. Haier America also has to face up to a lot of challenges. Cultural conflict is one of these challenges. Luckily, in practice, Haier America has worked out a lot of ways to ease the cultural conflicts and to achieve the cultural integration.
The aim of this thesis is to analyze the cultural conflicts and cultural integration in Haier America. Although Haier America has made considerable achievements, it is still faced with a lot of challenges, especially the challenges of cultural conflicts between China and the USA. This thesis will sum up the internal cultural conflicts and external cultural conflicts in Haier America and analyze the cultural causes of these conflicts. Then, this thesis will analyze the approaches Haier America used to achieve the cultural integration. Last but not least, this thesis will provide implications on cultural integration for Sino-US multinational corporations from the case analysis of Haier America.源:自/751-·论,文'网·www.751com.cn/
2. Literature Review
The problems Haier America faced with are not only in the business scope, but also in the cultural scope. Before analyzing the cultural causes of conflicts, the thesis is going to introduce some definitions and review the research findings predecessors have achieved in intercultural communication and business first.
2.1 Previous Researches of Corporation Culture
The rising of corporation culture was the hallmark of the study of culture in the new era. Terres.Dill, the professor of Harvard, is the expert who studied the corporation culture earliest. (Luo Changhai &Lin Jian, 2003:89-93)文献综述