Business Versus Business? Grupos and Organized Business in Colombia

This article examines business political behavior in Colombia during the scandal-ridden presidency of Ernesto Samper (1994-98), highlighting the mechanisms by which grupos (diversified economic groups) undermined the ability of organized business to present collective political positions. Evidence that the presidential campaign had been funded by drug traffickers prompted business associations to demand Samper's resignation. But grupos , the firms of which are affiliated with associations, supported the president. This division weakened the position of organized business regarding the resignation, as well as its own political legitimacy. This study argues that grupos face strong incentives to act outside business associations to advance their particular interests. Scholars assessing the strength of organized business in Latin America will increasingly encounter the impact of grupos on business institutional responses to policy.     

家族企业传承制度面临的抉择--美国家族企业研究对华人家族企业的启示

家族企业对世界各国经济的贡献以及重要性已经获得了普遍的承认,家族企业的发展成为学术界日益关注的话题.保证企业所有权和控制权的代际平稳过渡是家族企业可持续发展的关键因素之一,对此,美国学术界进行了大量的理论研究.而华人家族企业已经发展到了第二代或第三代,但学术界对华人家族企业传承问题的研究却相对缺乏.本文结合美国家族企业传承问题的相关研究成果,分析了美国家族企业传承规划的实施现状,然后对比了华人家族企业在代际传承中出现的问题,最后对华人家族企业如何建立和完善传承机制提出了具体建议.     

在俄华人灰色经营问题解析

灰色经营是指非正规但又被默许存在的经营活动。华人在俄进行灰色经营的领域主要有包棚种菜、在批发市场做买卖和带团旅游。华人在俄灰色经营活动之所以能够长期存在,在某种意义上是俄方有意为之的结果。俄罗斯社会缺乏安全感,对外资和外来移民充满戒心;在制定移民政策和引资政策时,总是更多地考量安全。这样就形成了如下矛盾心理:一方面对于外来移民的经营活动存在客观需求;另一方面又担心对外来移民的经营活动难以把控。对待在俄谋生的外来移民,俄方事实上的行为模式如下:先通过收严合法化空间使包括华人在内的外来劳务移民处于非法境地,然后,一方面默许其灰色经营方式的存在,另一方面在必要时进行检查和惩处。在这一背景下,如何化解灰色经营带来的危害,如何使经营方式由“灰”转“白”,就成为亟待探讨和解决的问题。     

Divergent paths,divergent outcomes: linking differences in economic reform to levels of US foreign direct investment and business in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

This article compares two transition economies that have diverged in their progress on important economic reform areas and then seeks to link these differences to their resulting levels of investment and business. For this study, interviews were conducted with firm representatives that had invested or conducted business in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in order to determine the areas of reform that were the most important for their investment and business decisions. The analysis indicates a relationship between Kazakhstan's advanced economic reforms in such areas as foreign investment legislation, tax legislation, banking system reform, and higher levels of investment and business. Uzbekistan's lack of progress in these reform areas has affected the level of investment in the country, but not the number of firms conducting business. This was primarily because firms could secure financing for the business through the US Export–Import Bank.     

The Transformation of Korean Business Groups after the Asian Crisis 1

This study examines the evolution of Korean business groups after the economic crisis. In particular, we investigate the post-crisis changes in their business structure and corporate governance system, which are argued to be major precipitating factors leading to the economic crisis. Our analysis suggests that the divestment intensity of non-core, highly indebted and low intra-group trade firms was higher for groups which survived the economic crisis, compared to the bankrupt groups. Besides, most surviving groups did not pursue diversification as actively as before the crisis, and their financial conditions remained favourable in the post-crisis period. The corporate governance of the groups has also improved in terms of corporate transparency, implementation of monitoring mechanisms and their accountability to shareholders. Therefore, it seems that Korean business groups have successfully implemented radical corporate transformation to adapt to the changed business environment after the crisis. But, the dominance of family management still remains as an important feature of Korean business groups.     

Labour militancy in Taiwan: Export integration vs authoritarian transition

Since the 1980s, the Korean state has witnessed significant challenges from big business (chaebol) as well as from organized labor and popular sector. Regime transition has influenced the social and political relations between the state and big business. Thus the central argument is therefore that the developmental state has gradually eroded as the power and capability of the developmental state was increasingly affected by economic liberalization and political democratization. At the same time the state and big business are increasingly connected within more institutionalized networks. The argument will be advanced that the traditional relationship between the state and big business, which was characterized as one of state domination and the subordination of big business, has been changing more radically than the statist analysts presumed.     

Business Power and the Politics of Postneoliberalism: Relations Between Governments and Economic Elites in Bolivia and Ecuador

The article analyzes and compares the dynamics of business‐government relations in Bolivia and Ecuador during the presidencies of Evo Morales and Rafael Correa. It specifically traces the shift from confrontation to rapprochement to a fairly stable pattern of negotiation and dialogue that characterizes the two governments' interaction with core business elites. Drawing on the structural and instrumental power framework developed by Tasha Fairfield, it proposes an explanation that accounts for this overall shift as well as for the main differences between the two countries. In a nutshell, the article argues that the business elites' response to a severe loss of instrumental power and the governments' response to the persistent structural power of business combined to cause the shift toward negotiation and dialogue. The article also probes the plausibility of this power‐based explanation by briefly comparing the two cases with other left‐of‐center governments in the region.     

Business associations in China: Two regional experiences

This article compares different practices of business associations in two localities in China – Wuxi and Wenzhou – and examines the internal linkage between associational practices and patterns of economic development. In Wuxi, business associations are organised and run by government in a top-down approach, and serve as state corporatist instruments; while in Wenzhou, there emerged many grass-roots business associations initiated and governed by entrepreneurs from bottom-up, working for societal purposes. The distinctive associational practices in the two localities are linked with their local economic development patterns: government-led development in Wuxi versus entrepreneur-initiated development in Wenzhou. The article concludes that the growth of private entrepreneurship and the spread of market relations, together with the willingness of government to leave space to societal actors, are the primary conditions for autonomous, vibrant business associations to occur.     

Siemens' ‘Anglo‐Saxon’ strategy: Is globalising business enough?

In the 1990s German conglomerates have attempted to move towards Anglo‐Saxon business values. Siemens saw shareholder value as the key measure of competitiveness. To become more Anglo‐Saxon, the strategy of Siemens was to globalise its business and change corporate culture. These changes have proved to be insufficient. Vertically integrated conglomerates need to break up their business empires, focus on their core competencies and move towards de‐integrated networking relations if they want high stock‐market performance.     

日本商业服务外包的发展模式研究及启示

本文从中间投入品商业服务外包和公司内部职能部门业务外包两方面探讨了日本商业服务外包发展模式的特点;分析了日本模式的商业服务外包对承接国的经济影响;并指出可以借鉴日本的成功模式,大力培育国内商业服务外包市场、规范国内关于商业服务外包产业发展的法律、法规,制定和实行支持国内商业服务外包产业发展的各项优惠政策,提升中国商业服务外包产业国际竞争力。     

中亚的政商关系:比较分析的方法

在大多数国家里,政府(政治与公共管理)与企业的关系对经济活动的运行、经济决策和企业战略发挥着显著的作用.在中亚的后苏联国家,现行的政商关系既是改革策略的内生结果,又影响着进一步的制度变革,表现出极大的差别.本文旨在理解哈萨克斯坦和乌兹别克斯坦的各种政商关系如何影响了这些国家市场经济制度框架的发展,重点考察了中亚国家政商关系的两个方面的内容:模式的内容(由代理人的偏好及其相对权力决定)和正式和非正式制度的一致性.     

Korean elites: Social networks and power

During the period of rapid industrialisation, Korean business elites sought to establish a ruling alliance of state officials, politicians, business owners, and professional managers that formed a social coalition to influence the state and society as a whole, reinforced through extensive social and political networks with various ruling groups. The elite community has generated a high degree of self-recruitment and social closure through school, marriage and kinship networks. In this way, the leading sector of the Korean business elite has formed complex, often contingent, relations with the state elite, and acts as an integral part of the upper class in society.     

Is Populism Bad For Business? Assessing The Reputational Effect Of Populist Incumbents

This article seeks to assess whether populist incumbents affect their country’s perceived political stability and business climate. Existing evidence contends that populist governments in European democracies produce more moderate policy outcomes than their agendas would suggest. However, populist parties are still regarded as disruptive, as they are perceived to not conforming to the politics of negotiation and compromise that are central to liberal democracies. Therefore, their presence in government may generate political uncertainty and negatively affect the business climate. Drawing on a sample of 26 European democracies between 1996 and 2016, we find that populist incumbency initially generates market uncertainty, but after about two years in office, the negative effect on the business climate vanishes.     

From employed to self-employed: An analysis of entrepreneurship in rural Latvia

Abstract

Private business is encouraged in transition countries in order to generate economic development in rural areas. This paper explores different forms of rural businesses in a peripheral region in Latvia. It builds primarily on interviews with business leaders and farmers. The analysis focuses particularly on the individuals that run businesses and how they utilise opportunities and respond to constraints. Individual resources such as ownership of land and buildings, skills and access to influential and geographically wide networks have been decisive for identification and exploitation of business opportunities in this rural context. Successful businesses demand that skills and contacts are continuously updated. Those undertaking such business activities that continuously try to adapt to the changing situation may be called “adaptive entrepreneurs”. Two different forms of adaptive entrepreneurs are identified; “flexible entrepreneurs”, those with greater ability to reorganize their businesses, and “restricted entrepreneurs”, those with more limited flexibility, which make them most vulnerable to change.     

The voice and loyalty of business in Kuwait: merchant politics in times of contention

According to the classic rentier state theory literature, the political activity of Kuwaiti merchants effectively ceased after the government acquired oil rents. More recent works explain business alliances with the government through the competition for resources between the capitalist class and the population at large. This article argues that the merchants’ political position vis-à-vis the ruling powers has not been consistent and has shifted between ‘voice’ and ‘loyalty’. To explain the choice of political action by the Kuwaiti business community the article compares the merchants’ role in two major contentious events—the popular uprising of 2011 and the 1989 pro-democracy movement. Despite the similarities between them, in 1989 prominent business figures were in the vanguard of opposition, while after 2011 they chose to re-emerge as government allies. The comparison suggests that the shift from ‘voice’ to ‘loyalty’ can be explained by the changing political field. I contend that the rise of new social forces and new types of political opposition antagonized business and forced it to side with the government in order to pursue its vital rent-seeking interests.     

Chineseness and Chinese Indonesian Business Practices: A Generational and Discursive Enquiry

This paper discusses the role and meaning of Chineseness in business conduct among different generations of Chinese Indonesian entrepreneurs active in small and medium sized enterprises. This issue is raised in order to inspire the ongoing debate concerning the characteristics of ethnic Chinese business practices in Southeast Asia, and to offer a way out of the culturalist – criticalist impasse by addressing topics that are often neglected: the voice of those concerned, the business practices of Chinese Indonesian entrepreneurs in the SME sector, and generational differences.     

中国-东盟自由贸易区与中国落后地区的发展--以云南为例的分析

中国西部地区之所以落后,主要的原因是政府与企业之间的关系规则不能适应市场经济发展的需要,削弱了该地区企业的竞争力。中国-东盟自由贸易区对中国落后地区发展的意义,主要的不在于具体提供了多少商业机会,而是这种商业机会的扩大为落后地区的制度创新提供了一个重要契机和强大动力。     

The continuing evolution of Japan's business model

We need to recognize the abiding strengths of the Japanese business model and adapt them to a changing world, says Yoshinori Usui, Director of International Affairs at the Institute for International Economic Studies in Tokyo. In this article, Usui points out that rekindling economic expansion in Japan is indispensable to economic recovery in Southeast Asia and to the lasting growth of the global economy. He discusses the merits of the Japanese business model and argues that its basic elements remain entirely sound and effective. Japan's lack of competitiveness in non‐manufacturing sectors, he says, is more due to excessive regulation than to any failings of its business model. Usui speaks in optimistic terms about the potential for combining the best elements of the traditional Japanese model with the worthy elements of the Anglo‐Saxon model.     

Strategic Alliances: State-Business Relations in Mexico Under Neo-Liberalism and Crisis

Abstract – This paper examines how neoliberal policies implemented under Carlos Salinas Gortari (1988–1994) changed the nature of state-private sector relations in Mexico. The paper attempts to show how Mexico's entry into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) solidified a strategic alliance between the state and business. The drastic peso devaluation of December 1994 and the ensuing economic crisis however, threatened to shatter the very foundation of the new alliance with the private sector. This paper thus, explores how the Ernesto Zedillo regime (1994–2000) addressed the expectations of the capital class and strengthened its transparent ties with the private sector. The paper argues that given the nature of the more transparent strategic alliance formed under the Salinas administration, big business continues to be brought into the policy making process, and that in fact, Zedillo continues to intervene on the side of business.     

菲律宾逆向应对中国入世和CAFTA的举措及其原因探析

本文介绍菲律宾政府与商界对中国入世和CAFTA的看法,以及菲律宾政府所采取的逆向应对举措,并从菲律宾的"逆工业化"过程的特点,制造业滞后发展与中小企业惧变,菲律宾政府与商界关系的变化与互动,菲律宾政治的特点以及21世纪初期菲政府的经济外交政策等角度,作了深层次的原因探析.