Basque Dragons in the Middle Kingdom: Mondragon multinationals in China

Abstract

This article analyzes the Mondragon Cooperative Group multinationals (MCGM), particularly from the perspective of their foreign subsidiaries. The MCGM are deconstructed according to the key aspects of the multinational company and their main characteristics are analyzed: the role and structure of the parent company, the subsidiary - parent company relations, the locus of decision taking, the distribution of the value added created by the subsidiaries, the working conditions and the labor relations in the subsidiaries, knowledge transfer, social responsibility, etc. The article looks at differences between a MCGM and conventional multinationals from the perspective of the foreign countries and foreign workers. The methodology is based on an empirical study of the MCGM and foreign subsidiaries, in particular, those located in the Mondragon Kunshan industrial park in China.