Identifying key factors for successful joint venture in China

China has become one of the top three nations for attracting foreign investment in the international market since 1990. Hundreds of international corporations are currently competing for business opportunities in China in the form of joint venture or direct investment. Both successful joint ventures and failed investments have been reported. Research, addressing issues of the conflicts between different cultures, traditions, as well as value systems, has appeared recently, but few focuses on identifying the key factors and their managerial implications for foreign investors to successfully enter China’s market. This paper presents an application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in such an effort, through a case study of China Motorola. This study shows that for foreign investors, by identifying key success factors and then incorporating those factors into firm’s long‐term business strategies and policies can enhance their business opportunities in China for a long time to come, even under China’s current complex economic and marketing conditions.