Business Groups in East Asia


Book Description

'Business Groups in East Asia' examines some East Asian business groups and their subsequent restructuring following the Asian Crisis of 1997. This crisis affected the inter-relationships among the socio-cultural environment, the state and the market of each country quite differently.




East Asian Business in the New World


Book Description

"East Asian Business in the New World" discusses how to conduct business in East Asia. The main objective of the book is to help American workers and American businesses gain competitive advantages in the global marketplace, in which the emerging Asian economies are rapidly becoming major players. The American economy appears to be on decline, especially relative to the rapidly rising economies such as China. To revitalize the American economy and those of the old world, we must pay close attention to the economies with which America competes. The objective of this book is two-fold: First, to focus opportunities and challenges of doing business in East Asia. The book will help readers understand Asian economies and business practices so that they can compete more successfully in Asia. Second, to discuss how the U.S. can learn from East Asia in revitalizing its own economy. This sets the book apart. It analyzes the social institutions in major Asian countries, including the political, economic, and cultural institutions, and compares them with the institutions in the U.S., identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. institutions, and providing strategic and policy recommendations that may help the U.S. economy and firms to compete in the global marketplace. Discuss how America and older economies can learn from AsiaProvides a theoretical framework of rule-based vs. relation-based governance to help readers understand the differences in doing business in Asia vs. doing business in mature economiesOffers business insights based on the author s business experience in AsiaApproaches the topic from a comparative perspective"




Business Systems in East Asia


Book Description

In this major contribution to comparative-international business Richard Whitley compares and contrasts the dominant characteristics of firms and markets in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, relating these to their particular social, political and economic contexts. At the level of the firm he looks at such areas as management styles and structures, decision-making processes, owner-employee relations, and patterns of company growth and development. He also discusses market development, customer, supplier and inter-firm relations, and the roles of the financial sectors and the state in market and industry development. The book also examines the ways in which key social institutions in each country have affected the evolution of business. Finally, the author makes a comparison of East Asian business systems with dominant Western practices.




East Asia Corporations


Book Description

East Asian corporations differ from their counterparts in other countries in important ways. Before the recent financial crisis these differences were viewed as one of the reasons for the success of East Asian economies. The crisis altered that view, and many scholars now argue that the weak corporate governance and financing structures of East Asian corporations are partly to blame for the recent crisis. This paper reviews several features of East Asian corporations, showing that they have high leverage and concentrated ownership, are typically affiliated with business groups, and operate in multiple industries. These characteristics affected the performance of corporations prior to the crisis as well as their ability to deal with its aftermath. Each economy's level of development also affected how these characteristics interacted with firm performance and valuation. Finally, the concentration of ownership in the hands of a few large families may have influenced economies' institutional development.




Business Ethics in East Asia


Book Description

For organisations and management the role of business ethics is of key importance, but to what extent business ethics are actually new or fashionable or universally applicable are interesting questions. Asia has been the site of contests between competing economic and ethical views of how economic norms and institutions are organized. This book examines the evolutionary similarities and differences of institutionalizing business ethics in Asia in a historical context and in comparison to better-explored business ethics literature, both empirically and theoretically. This collection uses both historical and contemporary cases in Japan, Korea and China to show that these countries have tried to balance their traditional business ethics norms and values with those that have been introduced from the West. Underpinning the case studies is the fact that these countries have historically pursued ethical mandates in running private corporations, although corruptive practices were also rampant during different historical periods.




Handbook of East Asian Entrepreneurship


Book Description

With the shift of the global economic gravity toward emerging economies and the roaring economic growth of the past three decades in China, East Asian catching-up growth strategies have profound implications for latecomer economies. While there are many handbooks on entrepreneurship in general, there is no reference on East Asian entrepreneurship. This is the first of its kinds in the market. The volume provides a useful reference for those who want to know East Asian entrepreneurship and business systems. It also provides many excellent cases and illustrations on the growth of entrepreneurial firms and the rise of branded products in East Asia. Policy makers or scholars who are interested in entrepreneurship, small and medium sized enterprises, Asian business systems, international business, innovation and technology management, economic development, strategic management and East Asian studies would benefit from this volume. The volume contains two parts. The first part is the key concepts associate with entrepreneurship and East Asian firm growth and transformation. The second part presents cases of entrepreneurial firms and their founders in East Asia, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. With the handbook, scholars, students and policy makers can grab some basic ideas how entrepreneurs and firms in East Asia compete and survive in the world market and understand why and how East Asia economies can emerge as one of the most dynamic regions in the world. Part I concepts: relating to Entrepreneurship: Guanxi Catching-up strategies Types of entrepreneurship Business System Strategic Management Leadership Part II cases cover variedly from manufacturing to services industries, and specifically including traditional and newly corporations ranging from toys, convenient stores, fast fashion, high-tech, to catering and service. Written by experts in their respective areas, Handbook of East Asia entrepreneurship is an excellent review of theories, policies and empirical evidences on important topics in Entrepreneurship in East Asian economic development. The book is both a superb teaching tool and a valuable handbook in development economics.




The Rule of Culture


Book Description

Culture has an abiding influence on the way countries and business corporations are governed. This book introduces the reader to the deep philosophies that drive corporations and governments in East Asia, from China through Japan and South Korea to Singapore. With sparkling clarity and spiced with anecdotes and case studies, it depicts how respect for cultures can lead to spectacular success, or the lack of it to failure. Confucian practices such as guanxi in Chinese society, the benevolent culture of entity firms in Japan, and patriarchal chaebols in South Korea are analyzed with examples like Esquel, Nissan, and Samsung. A delightful chapter on Daoism shows how it drives Jack Ma’s Alibaba.com. In the governance of nations, the author reinforces Burke’s dictum that systems of government must be consonant with traditional cultures, and he calls out misguided attempts by the West to foist liberal democracies on civilizations in the East where respect for authority and communitarian values come before individual interest. The author advances the novel concept of the meritocratic democracy in which leaders are chosen not by electoral popularity but by proven ability. In a thought-provoking concluding chapter, he evaluates prospective constitutional changes in China that would enshrine meritocratic democracy as an alternative to liberal democracies that have turned dysfunctional in many Western nations.




Strategic Coupling


Book Description

In Strategic Coupling, Henry Wai-chung Yeung examines economic development and state-firm relations in East Asia, focusing in particular on South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. As a result of the massive changes of the last twenty-five years, new explanations must be found for the economic success and industrial transformation in the region. State-assisted startups and incubator firms in East Asia have become major players in the manufacture of products with a global reach: Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision has assembled more than 500 million iPhones, for instance, and South Korea’s Samsung provides the iPhone’s semiconductor chips and retina displays.Drawing on extensive interviews with top executives and senior government officials, Yeung argues that since the late 1980s, many East Asian firms have outgrown their home states, and are no longer dependent on state support; as a result the developmental state has lost much of its capacity to steer and direct industrialization. We cannot read the performance of national firms as a direct outcome of state action. Yeung calls for a thorough renovation of the still-dominant view that states are the primary engine of industrial transformation. He stresses action by national firms and traces various global production networks to incorporate both firm-specific activities and the international political economy. He identifies two sets of dynamics in these national-global articulations known as strategic coupling: coevolution in the confluence of state, firm, and global production networks, and the various strategies pursued by East Asian firms to attain competitive positions in the global marketplace.




East Asia and the Global Economy


Book Description

After World War II, Japan reinvented itself as a shipbuilding powerhouse and began its rapid ascent in the global economy. Its expansion strategy integrated raw material procurement, the redesign of global transportation infrastructure, and domestic industrialization. In this authoritative and engaging study, Stephen G. Bunker and Paul S. Ciccantell identify the key factors in Japan’s economic growth and the effects this growth had on the reorganization of significant sectors of the global economy. Bunker and Ciccantell discuss what drove Japan’s economic expansion, how Japan globalized the work economy to support it, and why this spectacular growth came to a dramatic halt in the 1990s. Drawing on studies of ore mining, steel making, corporate sector reorganization, and port/rail development, they provide valuable insight into technical processes as well as specific patterns of corporate investment. East Asia and the Global Economy introduces a theory of “new historical materialism” that explains the success of Japan and other world industrial powers. Here, the authors assert that the pattern of Japan’s ascent is essential for understanding China’s recent path of economic growth and dominance and anticipating what the future may hold.




Political Business in East Asia


Book Description

The relationship between government and business has become a central issue in East Asia since the financial crisis of 1997. As the Asian economies try to advance the reform process, recent scandals involving corruption and cronyism have demonstrated the ongoing significance of the issue. This edited book features a range of distinguished international specialists and explores the interaction between politics and business across the region. Detailed case-studies focus on Japan, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. This is the first comprehensive introduction to government-business relations in the region and makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the problems faced by the Asian economies.