Changing Asian Business Systems

Globalization, Socio-Political Change, and Economic Organization

Edited by Richard Whitley and Xiaoke Zhang

A comparative focus on major economies across Asia
Offers a refined theoretical framework for comparing business systems
A more dynamic perspective into the analysis of changing business systems

Changing Asian Business Systems

Globalization, Socio-Political Change, and Economic Organization

Edited by Richard Whitley and Xiaoke Zhang

Description

This book brings together scholars from different disciplines to examine the evolving patterns of economic organisation across Northeast and Southeast Asia against the backdrop of market liberalisation, political changes and periodic economic crises since the 1990s. More specifically, it provides an interdisciplinary account of variations, continuities and changes in the institutional structures that shape business systems and practices and govern innovation patterns, together with analyses of their impact on established systems of economic coordination and control.

In line with this analytical focus, the project has three different yet interrelated objectives. In the first place, building on the comparative business systems framework, it elucidates the nature and properties of business system changes and continuities in Asia since the 1990s. Second, it develops novel theoretical propositions concerning the primary causes of these changes and continuities, representing a collective effort to theorise the changing varieties of Asian economic organisation. Finally, it explores the causal pathways through which the changing institutional structures governing business systems have shaped and reshaped innovation strategies and trajectories across the national, sectoral and firm levels of analysis.

Changing Asian Business Systems

Globalization, Socio-Political Change, and Economic Organization

Edited by Richard Whitley and Xiaoke Zhang

Introduction: The Comparative Analysis of Asian Business Systems, Richard Whitley and Xiaoke Zhang
Part One: Changes, Variations and Continuities in Asian Business Systems
1. Changing Business Systems in East Asia: Continued diversity between, and varied change within, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, Richard Whitley
2. Change with Continuity: Asian Capitalism in Transition, Gary G. Hamilton and Solee Shin
3. Systems of Corporate Governance in East Asia: Continued Divergence Despite Global Pressure, Christina L. Ahmadjian
4. Changes in Japanese and South-Korean employment practices: Lessons on the endogenous character of institutional change and the character of business systems, Arjan Keizer
5. Business system evolution and the indigenization of MNE practice transfers in Thailand and Myanmar: An 'emic' perspective, Tim G. Andrews, Khin Thi Htun and Khongphu Nimanandh
Part Two: Socio-Political Structuring of Asian Business Systems
6. State Structures and Business System Changes in East Asia, Richard W. Carney
7. Change and Continuity in Corporate Governance Structures: A Study of Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, Lai Si Tsui-auch, jun Jie Yang, and Toru Yoshikwa
8. Financial Reform and Change in Asian Business Systems, Leslie Young
9. Socio-Political Structures and Market Organization in Greater China, Xiaoke Zhang
10. Institutions, Dominant Coalitions and Firms: Comparing how Japan and Korea responded to Deregulation, Globalization and Competition in the Telecommunications Industry, Glenn Morgan and Izumi Kubo
Part Three: Business Systems, Institutions and Innovation Strategies
11. Compressed Development and Timing in East Asian Business Systems, D. Hugh Whittaker, Timothy J. Sturgeon, and Lei Song
12. Industry Emergence and Institutional Change: Explaining competitiveness in On-line computer games in Korea and Japan, Steve Casper and Cornelia Storz
13. Institutions, Sectors and Innovation: The Impact of Changing Political-Economic Contexts on Dominant Business Systems and Innovation Patterns in China, Jiajia Liu and Andrew Tylecote
14. Innovation Systems, Strategies and Corporate Performance in China and South Korea, Dennis McNamara
Conclusion: Asian Business Systems: Changes, Causes and Consequences, Richard Whitley and Xiaoke Zhang

Changing Asian Business Systems

Globalization, Socio-Political Change, and Economic Organization

Edited by Richard Whitley and Xiaoke Zhang

Author Information

Richard Whitley, Emeritus Professor of Organisational Sociology, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester,Xiaoke Zhang, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester Business School, the University of Manchester

Richard Whitley is Emeritus Professor of Organizational Sociology at Manchester Business School, University of Manchester. Recent authored and edited books include: Capitalisms and Capitalism in the Twenty First Century (2012); Reconfiguring Knowledge Production (2010); Business Systems and Organizational Capabilities (2007); Changing Capitalisms? (2005); The Multinational Firm (2001); Divergent Capitalisms (1999) (all published by Oxford University Press), and The Changing Governance of the Sciences (2007) (Springer); Competing Capitalisms (2002) (Edward Elgar). In 1998-99 he served as the Chair of the European Group for Organizational Studies and in 1999-2000 was the President of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-economics. In 2007 he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.

Xiaoke Zhang is a Professor at Manchester Business School, the University of Manchester. His major research interests are in political economy and comparative management studies, with a regional focus on East Asia. Before he joined Manchester Business School, he worked and taught at the Universities of Amsterdam and Nottingham. His publications include East Asian Capitalism (Oxford University Press, 2012), The Political Economy of Capital Market Reforms in Southeast Asia (Palgrave Macmillan 2011), International Financial Governance under Stress (Cambridge University Press 2003), and The Changing Politics of Finance in Korea and Thailand (Routledge 2002).

Contributors:

Christina Ahmadjian, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
Tim Andrews, Thammasat University, Bangkok
Lai Si Auch-Tsui, Nanyang University, Singapore
R. Carney, Australian National University
S. Casper, Keck Graduate Institute, Claremont
Gary Hamilton, University of Washington
Khin Thi Htun, Myanmar Women Entrepreneurs Association, Yangon, Myanmar
Arjan Keizer, University of Manchester
Izumi Kubo, Meiji University, Tokyo
Jia-Jia Liu, University of Manchester
Dennis McNamara, George Washington University
Glenn Morgan, Cardiff University
Khongphu Nimanandh, Chiang Mai University
Solee Shin, Lund University
Lei Song, Peking University
Cornelia Storz, University of Frankfurt
Tim Sturgeon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Andrew Tylecote, University of Sheffield
Richard Whitley, University of Manchester
Hugh Whittaker, University of Oxford
Leslie Young, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Beijing
Jun Jie Yang, Nankai University, Tianjin
Toru Yoshikawa, Singapore Management University
Xiaoke Zhang, University of Manchester