TY - JOUR
T1 - Making sense of the 'business group' in modern china
T2 - the rong brothers' businesses, 1901-37
AU - Chan, Kai Yiu
PY - 2011/11/1
Y1 - 2011/11/1
N2 - Some China scholars have suggested that 'business groups' in pre-Communist China adopted a 'hierarchical' structure of management. This perception is re-examined in a study of the inter-firm relationship among the firms in which the Rong brothers, prominent industrialists of the 1910-30s, invested. We find that equity control, marketing, purchasing, and financing of these firms show a high degree of individuality among the firms, while the Headquarters Company functioned as their coordinator. It suggests that the hierarchical-controlled 'business group' structure in pre-war China is either a phantom creation of historians or the projected image of later generations who created it during the nationalisation of firms in the 1950s.
AB - Some China scholars have suggested that 'business groups' in pre-Communist China adopted a 'hierarchical' structure of management. This perception is re-examined in a study of the inter-firm relationship among the firms in which the Rong brothers, prominent industrialists of the 1910-30s, invested. We find that equity control, marketing, purchasing, and financing of these firms show a high degree of individuality among the firms, while the Headquarters Company functioned as their coordinator. It suggests that the hierarchical-controlled 'business group' structure in pre-war China is either a phantom creation of historians or the projected image of later generations who created it during the nationalisation of firms in the 1950s.
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U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-8446.2011.00333.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-8446.2011.00333.x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80155126686
SN - 0004-8992
VL - 51
SP - 219
EP - 244
JO - Australian Economic History Review
JF - Australian Economic History Review
IS - 3
ER -