Zhou Nan

Professor of Strategic Management and International Business, School of Economics and Management, Tongji University

Zhou Nan is Professor of Strategic Management and International Business at the School of Economics and Management at Tongji University in China. She received her PhD degree from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, her master’s degree from the National University of Singapore, and her bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University. Before joining Tongji University, she was an associate professor at Nankai University, an assistant professor at Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, and also a senior research fellow at China Minsheng Bank. Her research addresses questions that intersect the fields of corporate strategy and international business, focusing primarily on understanding how strategic decisions such as product diversification and globalisation are influenced by firm resources and institutional environments in the context of emerging markets.

An employee places side molding on a car along the assembly line at a factory of Chinese automaker NIO in Hefei, in China's eastern Anhui province on 10 May 2023. (Hector Retamal/AFP)

Chinese manufacturers playing catch-up in core technology

Somewhat paradoxically, the trade decoupling of China and the US has forced Chinese manufacturers to independently develop their core technology, which is a boon to their long-term development and competitiveness. But it may be some time to go before China catches up with the West.