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ountries. In 2004 it was first in GDP terms, with a growth rate twice that of the period 1950-1992. Could this be related to the ‘managerial enterprise’? The typical Chinese business remains small and unstructured, with centralised decision-making (Redding, 1990: 155). The enterprise system is characterised by such themes as paternalism, hierarchy, responsibility and mutual obligation (Redding, 1990: 155). Despite the fact that the country expanded merely via conglomeration and mergers (opposing Chandler’s thesis), Child (2000) suggests that hierarchical structures fit closely to the scale and state-owned history of China’s large companies (Child, 2000, in Li and Tsui, 2000: 41).

 

The particularities of the indigenous context should not be ignored: the role of the state in former communist China is still ‘visible’ and its Asian identity quite distinct (Child, 2000, in Li and Tsui, 2000: 35; 38). Chinese firms are highly dependent upon state policies and seek long-term relationships with the government. These are known as ‘quanxi networks’; the Confucian culture allegedly strengthens this relational approach to business (Gao and Tian, 2006: 70). Yet, we should note that Chinese industry is characterised by strong subcultures (Child, 2000, in Li and Tsui, 2000: 40), largely as a result of its historical background.

 

“The way people work has changed dramatically, but the way their companies are organised lags far behind” (Hindle, Economist 1/21/06: 3)

 

In a global economy where joint ventures and strategic alliances are typical, innovativeness, flexibility, responsiveness and cross learning and sharing offer a competitive edge. “Unless structure follows strategy, inefficiency results” (Chandler, in Whittington and Mayer, 2004: 1070). In fact, Chandler’s words cannot be more true, only that recent internalisation strategies require an alternative structure. Inevitably, focus has shifted from the traditional hierarchy to business networks (Wilson and Popp, 2003: 355). The ‘information age’ calls for flatter, more flexible network structures. Whittington and Mayer (2000) argue these are a development of the old M-form (Whittington and Mayer, 2000: 179). Hence, the two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive (Wilson and Popp, 2003: 359). During the 1990’s the Western world experienced a fierce wave of deregulation and divestments (i.e. Motorola), due to inadequate performance of M-form investment in the previous era (Hannah, 1991: 299; Ingham, 1991: 427). Additionally, the theory of core competencies condemns the power of individual divisions (Hamel and Prahalad, 1990, in Whittington and Mayer, 2000: 157). The flexible ‘matrix’ structure provides a possible ‘solution’, since it advocates effective cooperation between departments (Johnson, 1990: 225).

 

In a nutshell, excessive focus on management distracts attention from alternative forces other than structure (Baldwin, 1964: 239). Cartels, business groups (characteristic of both Europe -especially Germany and Italy- and Japan), government policies (i.e. anti-trust regulation, prote本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。