(Re)Shaping ‘Chinese’ Business Networks in a Globalising Era

Abstract

Globalising tendencies have transformed the forms and organisation of business networks. This is particularly true in the rapidly developing Asia-Pacific region where ethnic-based modes of business organisation prevail. Chinese business networks, for example, are posited to play a leading role in propelling the forces of regionalisation in the Asia-Pacific. In this paper, we explore the relationships between globalising tendencies and the changing form of Chinese business networks. We discuss how Chinese business networks, traditionally conceptualised as closed and internally shaped owing to a variety of historically and geographically specific factors, are being (re)shaped by an array of actor-networks with an international business dimension. Groups of actor-networks associated with international finance, the international business media, and multilateral institutions are engaging with Chinese business networks. Through their capacity to enrol relevant Chinese firms into their actor-networks, the international business community is forging changes in some business practices, while also reinforcing other business practices. At the most basic of levels, though, the reshaping of Chinese business practices has been driven by the desire of large Chinese firms to access the financial resources that flow through the global financial system. That such a situation should arise is not surprising given the nature of profits that have been generated from the development process in Asia-Pacific over the past two decades (before the onset of the Asian economic crisis). In the context of the reworking of global capitalism, and the reshaping of subglobal capitalisms, such a relational approach to analysis of economic organisation may help shed some light on the networks that bind together actors and institutions over time and space in uneven (albeit evolving) relations of interdependence.

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