Networks, Markets, and the Pacific Rim

ISBN 10: 0195117204 / ISBN 13: 9780195117202

Published by Oxford University Press Inc, US, 1999

About this Item

This volume explores the wide diversity in the kinds of networks that have been established between firms in Japan and the Pacific Rim. Editor W. Mark Fruin shows how networks in Japan and Korea are more prescribed and standardized than those found in the United States. For example, Toyota's satellite organizational system is more flexible, open-ended, and market-conforming than General Motors divisional organization. But less market-conforming networks can also arise. In China, for example, networks have arisen because of the unpredictable nature of markets. The contributors to this volume utilize new ideas and data to formulate an understanding of the importance of networks to the success of Asian firms. The book's postmodern approach--seeking not a single model but rather a variety of models of equally probable validity--makes it a unique resource for scholars and professionals in the field.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780195117202

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Networks, Markets, and the Pacific Rim
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc, US
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195117204
• ISBN 13: 9780195117202
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 653 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Despite the negative press Asian economies have received in connection with the recent financial crisis, their record of spectacular growth over the past few decades remains irrefutable. In an effort to provide a rich, textured analysis of these economies, editor W. Mark Fruin presents a collection of essays that explores the wide range of network organizations that have been established in the Pacific Rim.
Conventional studies of economic organization have tended to center on markets and hierarchies, the two forms of organization most common in the West. But today the world moves too quickly and too unpredictably for the idealized organizations of microeconomic theory to keep up. It is no accident that the region that has generated the world's most explosive economic growth is also the region where network organizations--sets of independent actors who cooperate frequently for mutual advantage--are most pervasive. Rapid economic, social, and technical changes favor the formation of network organizations, and vice versa.
The contributors to this volume identify and elucidate four basic types of networks: naturally occurring networks, market replacing networks, hierarchy replacing networks, and market enhancing networks. They show how all of these have been shaped by the history, government, legal system, and culture of each country under consideration. These network organizations allow the authors to compare and contrast network forms in China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States according to features such as degrees of formalization, rule definition, and market conformance.
The works collected here make an important contribution to a networks-markets- hierarchies framework that recognizes and emphasizes the diversity of organizational forms and behaviors. A unique resource for scholars and professionals in the fields of management and economics, this book enables a complex analysis of one of the world's fastest growing and most theoretically challenging regions.

About the Author

W. Mark Fruin is at San Jose State University.