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This paper explores the relationships between inequality, trade, and capital flows into China since the early 1990s and particularly in the first years of the present decade. We show that the rise in economic inequality in China has more to do directly with the activities associated with China's financial and building boom, notably in Beijing, than with the massive growth in manufacturing employment and in Chinese exports since China joined the WTO in 2001. Nevertheless, it is likely that a flow of profits from the export boom did feed the speculative fires in the capital and elsewhere, and therefore it should be no surprise that the fall of one should be linked to the fall of the other, in a particularly painful reduction of economic inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of a discussion of African production of clothing for the EU and US markets over the last decade, this paper examines the influences of culturally-specific conventions of industrial organization and quality on GVC governance, entry barriers and suppliers' upgrading possibilities. The paper argues that, while US and EU conventions and governance forms are becoming more similar, neither financialization nor MFA phase-out have led to an eradication of differences in the shape of clothing production and trade into these markets. The trend is rather for existing differences to be reproduced in new forms, rather than being eradicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how political connection shapes firm owner preference on economic openness and international competition in China, a topic that is getting increasingly relevant today amid China's trade disputes with its trading partners over the nature of the country's business-government relations. Politically connected entrepreneurs and their enterprises usually exploit and benefit from their political resources, but this can lead to both supporting and opposing views on expanding trade liberalization. To solve this puzzle, this article proposes a theory that focuses on (1) a selection effect of political connection on firm productivity and (2) trade-related institutional development in China. With survey data on China joining the world trade organization, I develop a modified Bayesian item response theory model to measure political connection and find that Chinese politically connected entrepreneurs held a less supportive view before joining the world trade organization than their less connected counterparts. This suggests an anticipation that the imminent opening would neutralize the privileges of politically connected entrepreneurs. By looking at trade liberalization, this article offers a firm level analysis that political opposition to sustained economic reform may derive from the short-term winners, instead of the losers, in transitional societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brokers have played important roles in the trade of green tea between China and Mali, from the 19th century when tea first came to Mali up to the present. They mediate between tea buyers and sellers, work on their own account, use soft skills, knowledge and networks and make a living from the commission they gain. This article examines the work of brokers in the tea trade, the social constellations in which they are active and the scope of their activity. Based on extensive field research in Mali and China, this article shows how brokers create their own jobs in a dynamic business landscape, which is often delimited by governmental policies, competing entrepreneurial activities and social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes and analyzes certain methods of trade monopoly in a rustic environment in China. The field is West Town, in West Yunnan and the time of investigation is between January and May 1942. In West Town there are several guilds of which that of butchers of pigs is not the least important. This guild is said to have had its beginnings about forty or fifty years ago. It was then an independent but not formally organized thing. About six years ago the District Kuomintang Headquarters of Tali urged and helped to organize it into a definite Butchers' Guild and made it subordinate to Butchers' Guild of Tali. Family is the basis of membership in the guild. There are eighteen member families, which comprise all butchers in West Town. The Guild has an executive body of two representatives and two secretaries. The former have charge of external relations and the latter have the duty of managing internal affairs. In reality, however, secretaries only run errands to prepare for ceremonial occasions while all matters of importance are in hands of the two representatives. Officers are elected separately in both areas. Representatives are as a rule the senior-most persons in the trade in each area. But election occurs only when officer express a desire to relinquish their posts.

This commentary argues that scholars need an alternative to the dominance in academic research of the U.S. model of entrepreneurship to reflect better the variety and diversity of entrepreneurial activities around the globe. Using the example of China, today the world's second-largest economy, we discuss how researchers miss key elements of entrepreneurship because of their over-reliance on the U.S. model of entrepreneurship for analysis, espousing Western-based theoretical values and foundations. We discuss how researchers and journals can promote future research efforts focusing on indigenous entrepreneurship activities, applying indigenously developed theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the complex relationship of the state, market, and artists in pingtan storytelling in post-1949 China. By focusing on Su Yuyin, a pingtan storyteller, and his performing career, this article explores the persistence of cultural markets after the Communist victory in 1949 and argues that the market continued to play a significant role in shaping China's popular culture, which the government was keen on patronizing and politicizing. By comparing the regime's management of pingtan storytelling before and after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), this article further argues that the regime's censorship of popular culture in the 1950s and 1960s was handicapped by its lack of financial resources and the continued existence of cultural markets. The result was that censorship was not as strictly and efficiently enforced as has been assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on land use planning topics, including "Historical Amnesia: New Urbanism and the City of Tomorrow," "More Than Sector Theory: Homer Hoyt's Contributions to Planning Knowledge" and "Methodology for the Survival Analysis of Urban Building Stocks."

Building on an asset complementarity perspective, human capital and social capital measures are used to examine the science park location decisions of returnee entrepreneurs and the performance of their ventures. The study uses a unique, hand-collected data set of 349 SMEs from Zhongguancun Science Park in China, including 53 SMEs from locations administered by universities. The article considers the antecedents of university and nonuniversity science park location and firm growth with a view to drawing conclusions that go beyond the specific context of Beijing and China. Its findings include the tendency for returning entrepreneurs with academic knowledge in the form of patents transferred from abroad to locate in nonuniversity science parks, and for those with previous firm ownership abroad to choose university science parks. The firms of returnees with patents from abroad enjoyed stronger employment growth in nonuniversity science parks and those with commercial experience abroad with MNCs performed better in university science parks. This evidence is consistent with the view that returning entrepreneurs seek complementary (academic and commercial) assets in their location decisions, although some inconsistencies with this view are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The critical role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in firm performance has been widely studied in the U.S. context. However, the examination of this key construct in emerging regions such as China has been very limited. In this article, we hypothesize that the relationship between EO and firm performance is best represented as curvilinear, as opposed to linear, in China. We use a two-study approach to test the link between EO and performance, as expressed in both perceptual and objective performance. Findings of both studies demonstrate an inverted U-shape relationship. Implications for future research on EO are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the course of the twentieth century, militaries in the developing world adopted roles as owners and managers of economic enterprises that constitute an important source of financial and institutional autonomy from the state and society. This article identifies several distinct types of military entrepreneurship and argues that their development depends on patterns of state capacity, military professionalization, and threat conditions facing the country. Case studies of Pakistan, El Salvador, and China test the argument, exploring both the origins of military business activities and their current condition. The study finds that military entrepreneurship is harmful to the achievement or maintenance of military professionalism and that it is quite durable because it adapts to prevailing market conditions and therefore can weather major shifts toward democracy and the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remarkable economic performance of the Southeast Asian region has provoked debates among social scientists. One key area of contention is whether there is a particular form of capitalism to account for the East Asian phenomenon. Most of the studies conducted, however, have focused either on national industrial policies and market forces or on a broad cultural explanatory view, such as recourse to Confucianism or Asian values. This article, building on work done by these scholars, seeks to look at not only the effectiveness of business networks in the expansion of businesses, but more importantly, and an area that has been largely unexplored, the drawbacks of Asian business networking. Some questions that the article sets out to answer include: Are there any issues of conflict arid inheritance that are exclusive to Chinese family business? If yes, what are they and why are these issues unique to Chinese family business? Is there a particular way that Chinese businesses deal with these issues? Most studies on Chinese family firms and business networks have focused on `success'. This article seeks to study business failures, focusing on issues of conflict and inheritance. In a sense, it looks at the `dark side' or dysfunctions of family business, filling an important gap in the current research literature. Using extensive case study interviews conducted in Singapore and Malaysia, as well as fieldwork in China, the article examines the intricate processes in running a family enterprise as well as the nature and management of conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]