Going overseas holds the key to development

Chen said a number of Chinese POEs are deciding that their best route overseas is to acquire stakes in overseas companies since this often helps them to localize better.

"If you acquire a minority stake and build up confidence you can then acquire more stakes. Even if you acquire a controlling stake you don't necessarily have to bring in Chinese management but set KPI (key performance indicators) for the local management team," she said.

Barber said that establishing joint ventures with overseas companies could be increasingly a way forward for Chinese private businesses.

"It is an emerging paradigm. Developing more cooperative relationships with foreign companies is an evolutionary next step," he said. "Some deals in the past were very high profile and met with great resistance and I think Chinese companies are now learning from that experience."

Chinese POEs still face many challenges in going abroad, according to the report.

Many saw it as a high cost endeavor and almost a quarter (23.2 percent) said raising capital and financing is the biggest issue.

Lack of experience (cited by 16.4 percent), absence of long-term strategy (15.9 percent) and fear that their brand is not well known enough for these companies trying to sell their products overseas (10.6 percent) are still major barriers.

Far from being unwelcome, the report found that Chinese companies were welcomed overseas. Of the overseas respondents, 92.2 percent said they brought competition and more choices for consumers with a further 77.2 percent saying they also created more employment opportunities. Only 12.5 percent of those surveyed thought they were a threat.

Nearly nine out of 10 (86.8 percent) said that China now had outstanding global enterprises with the three of the top four best known being private businesses, the telecommunications company Huawei, computer giant Lenovo and electrical goods maker Haier.

Barber said Chinese companies are often looking to acquire technology or brands that can be used to give them a competitive advantage in the domestic market and that their target companies often enter into deals with Chinese companies to also get access to that market.

"One of the motivations for the deals is often to acquire technology or brands that can be used in China and therefore increase their success in the China market," Barber said.

"For some of the deals we have been involved this is very much what the foreign party was looking for as well, getting their products or technology into China."