International Joint Ventures in China after WTO Accession: Will Trust Relations Change?

China’s accession to the WTO, finally realized after 13 years of negation, will gradually open the “Great Wall” which still protects large areas of what will one day become the largest economy of the world. Our paper addresses the nature and functioning of international joint ventures by investigating Chinese-German joint ventures within this context. In general, for international joint ventures in developing countries, trust seems to be one of the key factors for performance. We explored how China’s WTO entry influences the competitive position of partner companies in Chinese-foreign JVs, and their strategic options for coping with that change, depending on their core competences and competitive positions, as well as on their relative bargaining positions.