Abstract:

The project assesses the changing nature of corporate strategy in East Asia, particularly in light of the East Asian financial crises. The project emphasises the role of East Asian corporate activity within East Asia itself, and how these corporate strategies relate to processes of regionalisation in East Asia. Breslin has focused specifically on corporate strategy in China – the region’s biggest emerging market. There are two main emphases to this work: (i) the way in which Asian investment in China has contributed to the growth of Chinese trade, suggesting that FDI and trade have been crucial determinants of both the regionalisation and globalisation of the Chinese economy; and (ii) the way in which the unreformed nature of the domestic Chinese economy obstructs non-Chinese global corporations from operating in China, stressing the political constraints on economic liberalisation and the resulting trade and economic frictions between China and the developed world.

Research on this project has been aided by collaboration with leading business schools in France: IAE Poitiers, Group Esc Nantes Atlantique, and INSEAD Euro-Asia Centre. This project is also being supported through collaboration with the China-Britain Business Council. The CBBC has agreed to collaborate on a project designed to generate both academic research, and also to help UK companies access the Chinese market. Starting in 2000, the CBBC will run a focus group and conduct a sample survey of selected companies to identify key questions and issues to be assessed. Once the research questions have been identified, the CBBC will provide access to relevant companies through its existing membership structure.

 

Output:

 

Shaun Breslin, "Decentralisation, Globalisation and the "Creation" of Trans-National Economic Regions in the People's Republic of China", CSGR Working Paper 38/99, September 1999

Shaun Breslin, "'Made in China': The Growth of Chinese Trade", CSGR Working Paper 19/98, December 1998