Collaborative Research: Business Organization and Network Relations of Foreign Manufacturing Ventures in the Yangtze Delta Region, China

University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

The globalization of business activity is a central feature of the contemporary world economy; it is a significant force in the production and re-production of national and local economies. Academic inquires concerning the causes and consequences of globalization of business activity have generally focused on meta-narratives of capitalistic mode of production or macro-explanations of global-local relations. Systematic establishment-level studies pertaining to the local business organization and relations of foreign ventures in host economies with respect to their global/local constraints and opportunities are lacking. This study aims to examine the ways foreign firms articulate their networks in China and the corresponding impacts on venture performance and local economic development. Based upon a detailed investigation of the local business organization and relations of foreign manufacturing ventures in four cities in the Yangtze Delta region (Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, and Hanzhou), the study also examines the differences in local business organization and relations of ventures with respect to major structural characteristics of the investments and the socioeconomic and institutional environments of the four cities. The study will employ both postal survey and personal interview methods for gathering data, and a range of quantitative and qualitative methods will be used for analysis. The underlying hypotheses are that the marketing/material/technology networks of the ventures are spatially more dispersed than the production networks, and that their extent of interaction with indigenous enterprises is limited. It is further hypothesized that foreign ventures are active in securing cooperative local relations, and that the existence of harmonious local inter-firm and venture-authority relationships has positive impacts on venture performance and local development. The study will provide a better understanding of how foreign firms articulate their business networks in host economies with respect to their global/local constraints and opportunities. It will lead to the development of a more comprehensive and integrated theoretical and empirical framework for the studies of globalization, business organization, economic networks, and global-local relations. At a practical level, the study will provide important empirical information regarding the foreign investment environments in the Yangtze Delta region, which can serve as a basis for foreign firms to establish a set of criteria for successful ventures and business relationships in China.