China’s Economy in the 21st Century: Enterprise and Business Behaviour

Edited by Barbara Krug and Hans Hendrischke

China’s long-term economic success is driven by new firms, new sectors and new business practices. This book explores the establishment of new private firms and listed companies, the development of knowledge industries, in particular the IT and banking sectors and the co-evolution of public governance and business institutions.

The editors discuss the role of local institutions in coordinating business activities and unleashing entrepreneurship, arguing that the sudden growth of new firms and industries is facilitated by changes in business behaviour and institutions. Initial private exchange and investment in an environment of ill-functioning markets are shown to depend on local networks and local business culture which, in turn, rely on local tax regimes setting incentives for inherited bureaucracies to engage in economic transformation. Finally, the book establishes local institutions and local governance as crucial dimensions of China’s emerging business system.

The book contains chapters by the members of the RSM China Business Research Center as well as by other prominent scholars in the field, such as David Goodman and Sonja Opper. All contributors were involved in the joint research programme ‘Shifts in Governance’, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO); the book presents the programme’s first output.

Contributing to the theory of endogenous institutional change, The Chinese Economy in the 21st Century will be of great appeal to academics and students interested in management, comparative business systems, transition economics, evolutionary economics, Chinese studies and Asian studies.

Review
“A creative and wide-ranging collection on enterprise and business behavior in today’s China. Using sociological and historical as well as economic analysis, the individual chapters provide insights into different aspects of China’s transitional economy as it continues to undergo dynamic change. Recommended for academics and practitioners interested in the forms and dynamics of Chinese business behavior.”
Frederick C. Teiwes, The University of Sydney, Australia

Table of contents
Introduction - Barbara Krug
1. Going Public without the public: Between political governance and corporate governance - Sonja Opper
2. Institutional change, diversity and competition: Foreign banks in Shanghai, 1847-2004 - Jeroen Kuilman
3. Public firms in China: Success by strategic choices - Xueyuan Zhang and Patrick Reinmoeller
4. The new great leap: The rise of China’s ICT industry - Mark Joannes Greeven
5. Enterprise ground zero in China - Barbara Krug
6. China’s emerging tax regime: Local tax farming and central tax bureaucracy - Ze Zhu and Barbara Krug
7. Narratives of change: Culture and local economic development - David S.G. Goodman
8. Networks as business networks - Hans Hendrischke
9. Whom are we dealing with? Shifting organisational forms in China’s business sector - Barbara Krug and Jeroen Kuilman

More information
Book Homepage
Homepage Barbara Krug
Website China Business