A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for thedegree of Master of Business Administration

Research Studies Project Report (M.B.A.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2018

China{u2019}s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is on almost everyone's lips and controversial among governments, academics, experts and citizens. Our review has uncovered numerous document from China, the EU and think tanks but little information from or about France, where the researcher{u2019}s exchange semester took place at EDHEC Business School in Lille. We seized the opportunity to collect information in Lille and contribute to filling this knowledge gap. The main objective of the research is to explore and map the opinions, which the respondents have on economic, political and cultural/social aspects of BRI and attributed SWOT. Based on purposive and snowballing sampling, the data was collected from academics, students, business representatives (16 face-to-face interviews). To improve our knowledge on BRI and avoid falling to prey on stereotypes, we compared the opinions with publications from experts who professionally work on BRI (secondary data from academics, members of government or private organizations). Our analysis shows that a large majority - 14 out of 16 - of the respondents sees BRI positively in all three dimensions, economic, political and cultural/social. This result is enhanced by the fact that the number of overall positive statements about BRI outnumbers the overall negative ones (166 to 130). Further, the opinions and arguments on BRI held by the respondents are rather general and lack of substance but they are corroborated by findings from experts working professionally on BRI. We have provided evidence that BRI has already achieved results such as Chinese and EU strategic papers and projects within the EU but a few only in France; it is somehow an absentee since the previous and current President do not focus on China and have strong hesitations, mainly for security reasons. We recommend that BRI is given a clear profile and, due to its importance also in the future, government agencies should be created that professionally monitor, analyze and report on BRI for consumption of the 'public'.