CIRUS: Chinese Investment Rules

This project funded by the German National Science Foundation (DFG) evaluates the practices of Chinese investors in order to develop a novel theoretical perspective on the role of multinational corporations from Emerging Economies re-shaping global norms. The study will develop an innovative and timely approach to Chinese investments. A first part will employ machine-learning text analysis of newspaper articles to create a new and highly original database (CIRUS, for Chinese investment rules). This publicly available database will support societal interests, facilitate research on Chinese firms and their impact on global economic governance by industry associations, academics, think-tanks, journalists, etc. A second part will test and deepen the proposed theory of how the BICs (specifically China) may be altering global rules through their investors’ behaviour in terms of their alignment or lack thereof with best practice. The project also seeks to understand the degree and means by which the Chinese leadership is able to shape the behaviour of these investors.