The Chinese Corporate Ecosystem

Illuminates Chinese corporate behaviour through vivid case studies of leading corporations interacting with their political and natural-human ecosystems.

Colin S. C. Hawes (Author)

9781108838139, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 August 2022

400 pages
23.5 x 15.3 x 2.6 cm, 0.72 kg

'This is a strongly written, documented, and argued exploration of the evolution, nature, and consequences of the relationships between the Chinese Communist Party and corporations, both private and state-owned, in the post-Mao period … Highly recommended.' M. J. Frost, Choice

Challenging simplistic claims that Chinese corporations merely serve Communist Party goals, this book argues we cannot understand these corporations without tracing their dynamic evolution within a unique socio-political ecosystem. Vivid case studies illuminate the strange hybrid structures and networks that are essential for corporate success in the Chinese habitat. Tracing the reciprocal impacts between Chinese corporations and their environment, Colin S. C. Hawes reveals how corporations' political adaptations have raised serious obstacles for their international expansion and worsened China's environmental crisis. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that synthesizes insights from behavioural economics, science and Chinese philosophy, this book proposes innovative solutions to the damaging impacts of Chinese corporations. It makes a compelling case for redirecting the vital energy of corporations and government officials in more productive and sustainable directions.

1. Why is Huawei so strange?
2. An ecosystem for private enterprise growth: Alibaba, Ant Group, and SMEs
3. State-owned enterprises: mutant dinosaurs or adaptive hybrids?
4. The Communist Party and corporations
5. Corruption and anti-corruption
6. Guanxi: circulation of resources and corporate-political human relationships
7. Legal contradictions in the corporate-political ecosystem
8. Chinese corporations and the natural/human ecosystem: negative impacts
9. China's eco-civilization dream vs. corporate-political ecosystem realities
10. Conclusion: a Chinese ecological approach to re-forming the corporate ecosystem.

Subject Areas: Company law [LNCD], Company, commercial & competition law [LNC], Law [L], Corporate governance [KJR]