Chinese Capitalism Research Articles

Performance of China’s advertising agencies: a time series cross-sectional analysis

ABSTRACTAlthough China has been the world’s second largest advertising market after the United States in terms of advertising spending since 2006, the performance of advertising agencies in China and the factors that contribute to this performance have been understudied. However, by incorporating the structure-conduct-performance model and agency theory into the integrative framework and conducting a time series cross-sectional analysis, we determine that the degree of concentration in the advertising agency industry and number of regulations in the advertising industry have had significant negative effects on the financial performance of agencies. In addition, agencies with mainly foreign capital have performed better than those with only Chinese capital. Agencies adopting strategies of initial public offering (IPOs) or engaging in name changes and mergers have performed better than those that have done nothing. Implications are also discussed.

Chinese Modern Cartoon. A transcultural approach to Modern Sketch

Since the second half of the XIX century, Chinese print media have been involved in intercultural exchanges that permanently modified the editorial production in Shanghai, the Chinese capital of modern press. The evolution of the visual language of cartoon (single-panelled, mainly satirical vignette) has to be located in this context, i.e. in a liminal space characterized by the contact and the intermingling of semiotic systems as well as genres and interests. On one hand, the cartoon format is by itself a hybrid genre, born as a complex iconic-verbal construction. On the other hand, Chinese modern cartoon, which emerged and developed at the turn of the XX century along with the evolution of journalism and entertainment in semi-colonial Treaty Ports, reflects and participates into the process of bridging cultural boundaries through adaptive and integrative communication strategies (metissage). The present essay will firstly examine the asymmetrical cultural exchanges between European-American (Punch-and-Puck format) and Chinese culture, and inside the Sino-Japanese 'interliterary community' of the late XIX century. Besides synthetizing the state of the art, the paper will also elaborate on the possibility of a Punch/Puck legacy in 1920s-1930s China. Secondly, through the analysis of selected exempla from the cartoon magazine Modern Sketch (Shidai Manhua, 1934-1937), I will present significant aspects of the transcultural processes occurred in China during the golden years of cartooning.

Ersatz Capitalism in Indonesian Automotive Industry during The New Order Era, 1969—1998

This paper examines a historical trajectory using Kunio Yoshihara’s concept of ersatz capitalism to analyze the development of Indonesian automotive Industry during New Order Era, 1969-1998. The concept analyzes the fact that the ersatz capitalism structure and ersatz capitalists behavior had caused the failure of Indonesian automotive Industry development to achieve self-reliance. Ersatz Capitalism is characterized by patronage between capitalists and bureaucrats, the capitalists reluctance to invest in research and technological development, foreign capital and foreign technology domination, and the domestic capitalists role that act only as a distributor of the manufactured high-technology products of foreign principals instead of doing research and development, in order to seek immediate high profit return with minimum investment. Through the research, this paper analyzes the role of the ersatz capitalists from the various background such as military, Chinese capitalists, and president families and relatives had supported foreign principal domination In Indonesia. Those capitalists are reluctant to support government programs toward self-reliance industry and choose to strengthen their ties with foreign principals, in order to get immediate profit return without much investment and technological research.

Chinese Capital and Argentine Political Alternation: From Dependence to Autonomy?

The political analysis of Argentine–Chinese relations in investments and financial matters shows two faces of the China’s capital exports to Argentina. On the one hand, Argentina became the perfect example in the practice of China’s government’s desired aims stipulated in its first China’s Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean. On the other hand, China increased its structural power, integrating Argentina into its trade and financial scheme, and the South American country became dependent on Chinese capital. However, the political alternation and the change of foreign policy in Argentina in December 2015 diluted the unilateral dependence on China and transitioned to a multilateral dependence on the global capital markets, although China continued to play an important role in Argentine trade and finance. For that reason, the paper asserts some ideas about the way in which Argentina’s integration into the China’s global strategy presented not only supports but also challenges to the Argentine democracy, while exploring the impact of the second “Policy Paper”.

The Limits of Guanxi for Chinese Nationals Doing Business Abroad: Empirical Investigation into Chinese Companies in Germany

AbstractIn the last ten years, Chinese outward direct investment (CODI) has undergone dramatic development. It has become increasingly important on the global stage. This paper attempts to integrate the guanxi concept into the Uppsala internationalisation process model to explain CODI motivation, location choice and knowledge acquisition channels. It reveals that Chinese investment in Germany is mainly driven by the desire to explore markets and to search for strategic resources. It favours location rich in network resources. Guanxi acts as an important channel of knowledge acquisition, but it is not as important as contractual linkage because of the limited professional and industry‐related knowledge in the local Chinese community. Chinese capitalism has been shaped into a hybrid form that incorporates both modern corporate management and traditional guanxi utilisation. Research which ignores or overemphasises the role of guanxi could lead to an incorrect understanding.

Study of Urban Energy Performance Assessment and Its Influencing Factors Based on Improved Stochastic Frontier Analysis: A Case Study of Provincial Capitals in China

To improve energy-use sustainability in cities, we proposed a set of urban energy performance assessment indicators and influencing factors based on existing theory and literature. An urban energy performance assessment and influencing factor model was also constructed by the improved stochastic frontier analysis method, and panel data from provincial capitals in China from 2004 to 2013 were considered as an example to carry out an empirical study. Chosen from both endogenous and exogenous perspectives, the urban energy performance assessment indicators and influencing factors take into consideration the capital, labor, energy, urban economic output, urbanization level, population, area, urban climate, and travel selection. Because it considers both random errors and the inefficiency levels of urban productions, the urban energy performance assessment and influencing factor model could reduce the errors caused by two-stage performance assessment and factor analysis, quantify the effects of assessment indicators and influencing factors on urban energy performance, and reflect the actual performance of different cities. Empirical results show that the urban energy performance of provincial capitals in China has been increasing. Chinese provincial capitals also have great potential for energy saving. It was necessary to include energy input as an assessment indicator when evaluating urban energy performance. Population density and urban energy performance showed a negative correlation, but the urbanization rate, temperature index, and household car ownership were positively related to urban energy performance. The urban energy performance of Chinese provincial capitals gradually decreased from east to west. Based on these results, several policy suggestions on urban energy performance development are proposed.

Exit of Chinese Domestic Venture Capital: Legal Impediments and Reform Measures

The American experience tells us that a fair and efficient stock market is vital for the exit of venture capital from their successful portfolio companies. Unfortunately, the current multi-tier stock market in China, including the Main Boards, the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Board (SME Board) and the Growth Enterprise Markets (GEM), cannot offer smooth exit channels for Chinese domestic venture capital either because of their demanding listing rules or because of their problematic listing approval systems. Confronted with this unsatisfactory situation, legal reforms must be carried out as quickly as possible.

Information Management During Crisis Events: A Case Study of Beijing Floods of 2012

This article examines the evolving process of China’s information management at sub-national level through the prism of a crisis event. Specifically, it investigates the response of officials and the media to Beijing’s fatal floods of 2012—the heaviest and the deadliest floods the Chinese capital has seen in 60 years. The article draws on ethnographic observations, the analysis of interviews with Chinese media professionals, officials and media scholars, as well as the coverage of the storm by two prominent, but distinct Beijing news outlets: an official daily, Beijing Ribao and a commercial daily, Jinghua Shibao. The analysis reveals various strategies deployed by Beijing authorities to positively shape public opinion, and the media’s creative implementation of official directives. Namely, the two newspapers fused regular news coverage with different styles of positive framing. This process of mutual and diverse adaption highlights the increasingly dynamic nature of China’s crisis communication and public opinion management.

Chinese Capitalism and the Maritime Silk Road: A World-Systems Perspective

ABSTRACTAs China tries to catch up from a semi-peripheral status in the hierarchy of a capitalist world-system, three decades of fast economic growth have recently shown serious signs of capital glut, overproduction and decreasing returns to capital, indicating the beginning of a phase of contraction and stagnation in the long-cycles of capitalist accumulation. The combination of “capital logic” and “territorial logic” in Giovanni Arrighi’s framework gives both the Chinese state and Chinese capital strong incentives and pressure to actively engage in a “spatial fix” by reconfiguring its geographic vision in order to further capital accumulation and expansion on a larger spatial dimension, culminating in the “One Belt, One Road” Initiative, including the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI). The official promotion of the MSRI hopes to revitalise the historical precedents of the “Silk Road” so that the modern-day hyper-connectivity across Asia, Africa and Europe will facilitate the formation of a China-led reorganised world economy, operating under open and equal participation, possibly leading to common development for all countries involved. However, the nature and impact of such a grandiose initiative, especially its core mission of “connectivity”, is still highly contingent on the hybrid nature of Chinese capitalism in the world-system and how China engages capitalism at the global scale.

The Chinese Moral Crisis and Moral Capital

The Chinese Moral Crisis and Moral Capital

ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТЬ КИТАЙСКИХ ИНВЕСТОРОВ ЗА РУБЕЖОМ: ОСНОВНЫЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ И ЗНАЧЕНИЕ ДЛЯ МИРОВОЙ ЭКОНОМИКИ

At present, export of investment abroad is gaining increasing significance for the Chinese economy – the world’s largest economy. The issues related to the activities of Chinese investors abroad remain important given that the Chinese economy is in constant search of ways to gain new positions in the global market. The purpose of the research paper is to identify the main features of the Chinese investors’ activities in foreign markets and their implications for the modern global economy. According to the data shown in the paper, the volume of Chinese direct investment has grown from almost a zero point to more than $100 billion over the past decade. Developed countries of Europe and North America are becoming increasingly attractive investment directions for Chinese investment. The sectoral focus of investments has a multi-vector character. Public authorities are involved immensely in the process of investment abroad. The research leads to the conclusion that the main element of China’s international economic strategy is the plan to strengthen the impact on the development of the global economy in the following key directions: restructuring the world economic infrastructure through active promotion of the “One Belt – One Way” strategy; changing the world monetary and financial system and the entry of China into the list of its major actors; increasing the volume of export of Chinese capital abroad with orientation toward developed countries and strategically appealing sectors of the innovation-oriented economy; strengthening the role of private investors in the export of Chinese capital. All these changes are impossible without active government support the main directions of which are represented in this paper.

The Merger of Geely Automobile and Volvo Car Corporation as an Example of the Expansion of Chinese Capital in the Automotive Sector

One of the crucial forms of the expansion of Chinese companies into new markets over the last decade has been the increasing pace and scale of conducted mergers and acquisitions, as well as inter-regional agreements, such as joint ventures. The value of agreements such as mergers and acquisitions, established by Chinese companies worldwide in the year of 2015 reached a record level of $477.2 billion, far exceeding the results of the previous year, what demonstrates the growing openness of the Chinese investors to cooperation with foreign partners. The fields in which Chinese companies have invested the most in recent years are: energy, real estate, finances, automotive, metals, agriculture and technology. The article presents the effects of the merger concluded in 2010 by a Chinese passenger car manufacturer Geely Automobile with the Swedish company Volvo. The presented example of the expansion of Chinese capital in the automotive sector has been one of the most important investments ever made by the Chinese company on the foreign market. The basis of the analysis made by the author were the results obtained from annual financial reports, published by the mentioned companies. They allowed the assessment of changes in the position of the examined Chinese corporation by using such financial and marketing measures as: market share, market value of the company, value of companys revenues, the popularity of the brand and its image. Comparative analysis of the development of these indicators before and after the merger shows that the actions of Geely Automobile, effectively led to the strengthening of the company’s potential, as well as to the increase of its competitiveness on both the domestic and international markets, while its strategic aspirations allow to expect further dynamic growth and development of the company on the international arena.

TheQiaopiTrade and Its Role in Modern China and the Chinese Diaspora: Toward an Alternative Explanation of “Transnational Capitalism”

This essay takes issue with the idea that the trade in remittance letters (qiaopi侨批) was a modern form of “transnational capitalism” that relied on trust in a system of impersonal rules rather than “a distinctive form of ‘Chinese capitalism’” dependent on cultural or familial affinities, and thatqiaopitraders used instrumental economic practices to transnationalize their businesses. The essay aims to identify alternatives to modern capitalism that are, at the same time, robustly cosmopolitan, and for which modernity is multiple rather than modular. Ethnicity and identity matter greatly in diasporic Chinese business culture, as sources of entrepreneurial resilience and creativity, especially in the early stages of diaspora formation. Far from forming an obstacle to economic growth and technological innovation, business familism, social networks, and their associated cultural values can be shown, at least in some periods and contexts, to have assisted economic development in Chinese societies at home and abroad, by enabling social mobility, furthering family interests, building partnerships, facilitating contracts, and promoting other practices proper to a modern market economy.

Land Bargains and Chinese Capitalism: The Politics of Property Rights under Reform, by Meg Rithmire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. xvii+218 pp. US$99.99 (cloth), US$39.99 (paper), US$28.00 (eBook).

<i>Land Bargains and Chinese Capitalism: The Politics of Property Rights under Reform</i>, by Meg Rithmire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. xvii+218 pp. US$99.99 (cloth), US$39.99 (paper), US$28.00 (eBook).

Is there a Spirit of Overseas Chinese Capitalism?

The economic miracle of the Chinese Diaspora in Southeast Asia has been attributed to their unique economic culture forged from Confucian thought and the emigration experience. However, this Spirit of Overseas Chinese Capitalism (SOCC) hypothesis, based largely on qualitative research, has not been validated through quantitative work. This paper provides, for the first time, empirical evidence from a values survey and experiment which show that only some of the hypothesised SOCC values and behaviours differentiate the Chinese from less economically successful ethnic groups in Malaysia. While we find no evidence that Confucian values explain the success of the Overseas Chinese we do find it may lie in their (a) more conductive work values and (b) greater intra-ethnic cooperativeness, both accentuated by the emigration experience.

Disembodied Historicity

Southern Song Imperial Street (Yu Jie, 御街) is a historical street in Hangzhou, China, a former imperial capital in the Song dynasty.1 As the major thoroughfare of the imperial capital, Imperial Street assumed a preeminent role in the Southern Song dynasty. After the 2006 discovery of archaeological evidence from the Southern Song period, the street underwent a process of redevelopment. Following renovation designed by celebrity architect Wang Shu, the street reopened to the public in 2009. With its preservation and rebuilding of historical forms, this redevelopment mirrors other extremely large heritage-led urban regeneration projects in China today. Ironically, this movement arrives at a time when historical buildings in many Chinese cities have been almost annihilated by the frenzied process of urbanization. So-called heritage or cultural preservation projects have become widespread and follow a standardized business model that has achieved a degree of success, particularly in the tourism industry. This essay offers a detailed history of Imperial Street in Hangzhou, through which the relations between the past and the present at this particular locus can be articulated and analyzed. This case study of Southern Song Imperial Street serves to shed light on a vexed question in historical preservation: What should be protected in urban regeneration projects? In an ideal plan for a Chinese capital, the imperial street would be the central axis of the city, connecting the main (i.e., southern) gate of the imperial palace to the central city gate and dividing the whole city into two distinct halves. The imperial street (Zhuque …

Energy and Enterprise in Liu Hongsheng's Cement and Coal-Briquette Businesses, 1920–1937

The cement and coal-briquette manufacturing enterprises founded by Chinese capitalist Liu Hongsheng (1888–1956) during the 1920s and 1930s illustrate the potential of perspectives from the field of energy history to enrich our understanding of the interface between business and environment in modern China. Through his involvement in coal marketing and distribution during the early twentieth century, Liu Hongsheng promoted and profited from China's nascent transition to an energy regime powered by fossil fuels. With the establishment of his cement and coal-briquette companies, Liu also devised ways to profitably reuse and exploit by-products from his coal businesses as a source of energy for other forms of industrial production. More broadly, this analysis of the ecological linkages among Liu Hongsheng's business ventures situates them in relation to the interlocking systems of technology, infrastructure, energy sources, and institutions that facilitated the initial emergence of fossil-fueled economic growth in China during the interwar period.

Chinese manufacturing entrepreneurship capital: evidence from Italian industrial districts

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to obtain a better understanding of the presence of Chinese manufacturing entrepreneurship in industrial districts compared to other Italian local economies. Statistical data are used to uncover where Chinese manufacturing entrepreneurs localize their businesses and to what extent this localization is an innovation within the geographical pattern of industrial districts. Data on Chinese manufacturing micro-enterprises (i.e. with less than 10 persons employed) started up in years 2005–2007 and 2008–2010 are cross-tabulated by industrial districts and other local economies to investigate their change over time. The empirical findings show a dominance of industrial districts: those located in Tuscany are on top and Prato district ranks first.

National Emotions and Heroism in King Vajiravudh's Anti-Chinese Propaganda Writing

AbstractThe royalist nationalist propaganda writings of King Vajiravudh Rama VI—acclaimed author of the infamous Jews of the Orient, published originally in Thai since 1914—represent some of the finest examples of Anti-Chinese propaganda penned by major nationalist leaders of Thailand in the 20th century. Vajiravudh was a prolific author who produced more than a thousand fictional and non-fictional pieces within his lifetime literary oeuvre. A significant portion of these works was intended as political propaganda, many of which could be justifiably categorized as anti-Chinese pieces.As much of Vajiravudh's writings also serve as the core texts in much of Thailand's nationalist propaganda campaigns through much of the early-20th century, it has also come to define the problematic relationship between the Thai conservative ruling class and their ethnic Chinese financial patrons. This makes for very complex national emotions—despise of ethnic Chinese capitalists while venerating royalist conservative political leaders, most of whom, in fact, are of Chinese descent. This also unavoidably bleeds into the realm of everyday social values and relations between ethnic Chinese and non-Chinese commoners in Thai society, their own interpretation of nationalist propaganda, and their own adapted emotions toward each other. This article provides a textual and historical analysis of such writings.

The social order of Chinese capitalism: socio-economic uncertainty, communist party rule and economic development, 1990–2000

China's financially repressed economy remains characterized by a distinctly resilient political structure (the Chinese Communist Party, CCP) that penetrates both increasingly rational ‘private’ (market) and ‘public’ (state) organizations. How are we to understand the financial system's role in this persistently illiberal yet marketizing political economy? This paper develops a theory of China's financial reform as the management of socio-economic uncertainty by the CCP. Since the early 1990s, the financial system has formed a locus of the CCP's capacity both to manage and to propagate socio-economic uncertainty through the path of reform. The unique path of financial reform in China should thus not be viewed solely in terms of ‘partial’ or ‘failed’ free-market reform, but rather as the product of a more concerted vision of how the financial system enabled a mode of economic growth that combined the drive for accumulation of capital with the distinctive legacies of China's post-1989 socio-political circumstances.