Mit Delegationsreisen Neuland betreten: Befunde und Reflexionen zu einer etablierten Praxis der staatlichen Außenwirtschaftsförderung aus Bayern und China

Kurzfassung/Abstract

Entering new territory through delegation trips: Findings and reflections on an established practice of foreign trade promotion from Bavaria and China. Agencies for business promotion and location marketing, such as Bavaria International and Invest in Bavaria, regularly organize delegation trips which allow small and medium-sized enterprises to get access to market knowledge and new business contacts. Despite the popularity of this established practice of foreign trade promotion, it is a largely unexplored field in academia. Based on comprehensive qualitative research, inter alia participatory observation during nine state visits of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs in China, the paper presents new empirical insights on the complex knowledge architectures and delicate socio-economic mechanisms of delegation trips. Against the background of these new insights, we put a conceptual framework up for discussion that aims to improve our prospects to grasp inter-organizational knowledge flows in cross-border cooperation by means of exploring what we call 'glocal tweets' as a new analytical category.