The Future of Chinese Capitalism

Much has been said about the re-emergence of China to its historical position of eminence in the world economy, yet little is understood about the kind of economic system China is evolving. What are the rules of the game of business in today's China, and how are they likely to change over the next decades? The answers to these questions are crucial to business persons formulating strategy toward China, but also for policy-makers concerned with retaining the competitiveness of their nations in the face of Chinese competition and for researchers seeking to gain deeper insights into the workings of economic systems and institutional change.

Written by two leading experts in the field, this book sheds much-needed light on these questions. Building on recent conceptual and empirical advances, and rich in concrete examples, it offers a comprehensive and systematic exploration of present-day Chinese capitalism, its component parts, and their interdependencies. It suggests that Chinese capitalism, as practiced today, in many respects represents a development from traditional business practices, whose revival has been greatly aided by the influx of investments and managerial talent from the Regional Ethnic Chinese. On the basis of present trends in the Chinese economy as well as through comparison with five major types of capitalism-those of France, Germany, Japan, Korea, and the United States-the book derives a prediction of the probable development paths of Chinese capitalism and its likely competitive strengths and weaknesses.

Gordon Redding is Director of the Euro-Asia and Comparative Research Centre, at INSEAD. He is also Professor Emeritus at the University of Hong Kong.

He is a specialist on Asian management, and especially on Chinese capitalism. He spent 24 years based at the University of Hong Kong, where he established and was Director of the Business School, and its sister organisation in executive education, the Poon Kam Kai Institute of Management.

His research focuses on the comparative understanding of Asian business systems, and especially on the contrasts between Chinese, Korean, and Japanese forms of capitalism. As well as encompassing cultural effects it analyses the influence of institutions and societal processes seen historically. In addition his work has included the implications for multi-nationals working in the region, and the operating problems of expatriate management. He has published ten books, including The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism, and over a hundred research papers. Michael A. Witt is Affiliate Professor of Asian Business and Comparative Management at INSEAD. The focus of his work has been on understanding the variations in the 'rules of the game' of business in different countries and regions, especially in China, Japan, and Korea, as well as in the West. Previous work in this vein includes a book on Japan entitled Changing Japanese Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 2006). He holds an AB in International Relations and Japanese from Stanford University and a PhD in political science from Harvard University. He is a Fellow at the INSEAD Euro-Asia and Comparative Research Centre.