Paper Tigers, Hidden Dragons

Firms and the Political Economy of China's Technological Development

Business & Finance, Economics, International, Finance & Investing, Finance
Cover of the book Paper Tigers, Hidden Dragons by Douglas B. Fuller, OUP Oxford
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Douglas B. Fuller ISBN: 9780191083013
Publisher: OUP Oxford Publication: May 19, 2016
Imprint: OUP Oxford Language: English
Author: Douglas B. Fuller
ISBN: 9780191083013
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication: May 19, 2016
Imprint: OUP Oxford
Language: English

China presents us with a conundrum. How has a developing country with a spectacularly inefficient financial system, coupled with asset-destroying state-owned firms, managed to create a number of vibrant high-tech firms? China's domestic financial system fails most private firms by neglecting to give them sufficient support to pursue technological upgrading, even while smothering state-favoured firms by providing them with too much support. Due to their foreign financing, multinational corporations suffer from neither insufficient funds nor soft budget constraints, but they are insufficiently committed to China's development. Hybrid firms that combine ethnic Chinese management and foreign financing are the hidden dragons driving China's technological development. They avoid the maladies of China's domestic financial system while remaining committed to enhancing China's domestic technological capabilities. In sad contrast, China's domestic firms are technological paper tigers. State efforts to build local innovation clusters and create national champions have not managed to transform these firms into drivers of technological development. These findings upend fundamental debates about China's political economy. Rather than a choice between state capitalism and building domestic market institutions, China has fostered state capitalism even while tolerating the importing of foreign market institutions. While the book's findings suggest that China's state and domestic market institutions are ineffective, the hybrids promise an alternative way to avoid the middle-income trap. By documenting how variation in China's institutional terrain impacts technological development, the book also provides much needed nuance to widespread yet mutually irreconcilable claims that China is either an emerging innovation power or a technological backwater. Looking beyond China, hybrid-led development has implications for new alternative economic development models and new ways to conceptualize contemporary capitalism that go beyond current domestic institution-centric approaches.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

China presents us with a conundrum. How has a developing country with a spectacularly inefficient financial system, coupled with asset-destroying state-owned firms, managed to create a number of vibrant high-tech firms? China's domestic financial system fails most private firms by neglecting to give them sufficient support to pursue technological upgrading, even while smothering state-favoured firms by providing them with too much support. Due to their foreign financing, multinational corporations suffer from neither insufficient funds nor soft budget constraints, but they are insufficiently committed to China's development. Hybrid firms that combine ethnic Chinese management and foreign financing are the hidden dragons driving China's technological development. They avoid the maladies of China's domestic financial system while remaining committed to enhancing China's domestic technological capabilities. In sad contrast, China's domestic firms are technological paper tigers. State efforts to build local innovation clusters and create national champions have not managed to transform these firms into drivers of technological development. These findings upend fundamental debates about China's political economy. Rather than a choice between state capitalism and building domestic market institutions, China has fostered state capitalism even while tolerating the importing of foreign market institutions. While the book's findings suggest that China's state and domestic market institutions are ineffective, the hybrids promise an alternative way to avoid the middle-income trap. By documenting how variation in China's institutional terrain impacts technological development, the book also provides much needed nuance to widespread yet mutually irreconcilable claims that China is either an emerging innovation power or a technological backwater. Looking beyond China, hybrid-led development has implications for new alternative economic development models and new ways to conceptualize contemporary capitalism that go beyond current domestic institution-centric approaches.

More books from OUP Oxford

Cover of the book The Human Rights of Migrants and Refugees in European Law by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book White Fury by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book Lectures on Geometry by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book The Vision of Didymus the Blind by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book Advanced Training in Anaesthesia by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book The Nibelungenlied: The Lay of the Nibelungs by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book The Country Wife and Other Plays by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book The American Senator by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book Advanced Respiratory Critical Care by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book Devastation by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book On the Soul by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book Four Laws That Drive the Universe by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book The Slain God by Douglas B. Fuller
Cover of the book The Lives of Ovid in Seventeenth-Century French Culture by Douglas B. Fuller
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy