Spring 2007, Volume 17, No. 2
International Workshop:
New Paradigms of Chinese Business History: Conception and Case Studies
Michael Wing-hin Kam, Tobias Chadwick, Chi Kong Lai and Edweana Masih
University of Queensland, Australia
On August the 24th and 25th, 2007, the Department of History of The Fudan University and the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica hosted an International Workshop on “New Paradigms of Chinese Business History : Conception and Case Studies”. Scholars came from the United States, Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Mainland China to participate in this workshop and a total of seventeen papers were delivered. The issues discussed could be categorized into four focal areas : methodologies of business history; the state and business; three case studies of the Mayar Silk Mills Company; and corporate governance. Some papers have been delivered to journals such as Australian Economic Edition Review and Lishi yanjiu (Historical Research).
Kwan Man Bun (University of Cincinnati) discussed the paradigm of Chinese business history. He reviewed theories about firms proposed by neo-classical economists, new institutional economists and economic sociologists. (for instance, theories pertaining to price signals, professional management, transaction cost, social network analysis etc.) He then utilized several examples, including family business, legal institution and networking to discuss the field in Chinese business history. Finally, he emphasized the discrepancy in the validation of the existence of a Chinese way of doing business.
Stephen L. Morgan’s (University of Nottingham) preliminary study of the importation of Western managerial knowledge in China before 1949 introduced a social science method of bibliometric analysis – a style of methodology used to measure the frequency of certain types of knowledge appearing in books and periodicals. Morgan utilized source material in the form of books stored in the National Library of China and Shanghai Municipal Library, and periodicals such as The Industry and Commerce Semi-Monthly, The Scientific Management Monthly, and Personnel Management. He also intends, in the future, to adapt the social network approach to trace the circulation of correlative knowledge.
Many scholars contributed papers on the topic of the relationship between Chinese State and business. Zhu Yingui (Fudan University) drew on archival materials, which were collected from The Second Historical Archives of China (SHAC) and other local sources or published materials such as the recently published books on Sheng Xuanhuai Archives, to analyze the power transfer in The China Merchants’ Steam Navigation Company from merchant control to bureaucratic control in 1885.
Chi-Kong Lai (University of Queensland) provides a legacy for the late Qing state Business Relations. Using some mid Qing Enterprises, he illustrates how the fluctuating of government policy affected proto- industrial development in China. He borrowed the concept of symbolic capital to analyze those case findings in the mid Qing period, and concluded that state officials tended to adopt the combination of both normative and remunerative strategies towards merchants. By using the JinPu railway company as an example, Elisabeth Köll (Harvard Business School) discussed the change of government administrative style towards companies before and after 1927, from relatively little interference in the day-to-day business to close supervision in terms of administrative hierarchies, hiring patterns, promotions, strategic planning and involvement in the political agenda. Morris L Bian (Auburn University) focused on the Guizhou Enterprise Corporation, a regional enterprise that was owned by the state but operated under the jurisdiction of local government. Although the corporation was assigned a mission to advance the economic development of Guizhou, several new institutions and practices, including organization structure, accounting system and human resource management were also introduced or modified. Scholars also showed their interest in the role of the Nationalist government in the economic recuperation of the economy after WWII. Wu Jingping (Fudan University) discussed the demobilization of the Shanghai banking industry, pointing out that all banks had no choice but to follow policies adopted by Nationalist government in order to regain the legitimacy. In addition, Hagiwara Mitsuru (Kushiro Public University of Economics) studied the Nationalist government’s solutions to the problems surrounding the Hanyehping Iron and Coal Mining and Smelting Company as well as the rehabilitation of the Daye Steel Factory.
Some scholars have also begun to explore the case of the Mayar Silk Mills Company. Feng Xiacai discussed the labor movement of the Mayer Silk Mills Company in the Republican Period. His paper highlights that industrial relations were crucial in business survival of the Mayer Silk Mills Company. Lin May-lin (Academia Sinica), in her paper, illustrated the cooperation between enterprises and accountants as a further means of studying the struggle for favorable tax rates and the reorganization of capital in the company. On the other hand, Sun Huei-min (Academia Sinica) surmounts past trains of thought. Instead of the attribution for the growth of corporation internal institutions, she discussed the continuous expansion of Mayar in the 1930s in terms of the company investment in other companies.
Certain papers dealt with the issue of corporate governance. Through the observation of the case of the Dongya Corporation of Tianjin, Brett Sheehan (University of Southern California) revealed how the war forced the company to adjust its marketing strategy to give up its national ambitions and in turn, reluctantly alter itself to become a regional enterprise. Dongya management had no alternative but to collaborate with the Japanese occupation regime in exchange for their survival.
Kai-yiu Chan (Tunghai University) reassessed the status of the so-called “head office” within the whole system of Rong’s family enterprises, and suggested that although it had sometimes provided financial assistance to other companies, which were also held by Rong’s family, it did not act as a pivotal administrative institution – a conclusion that was different from past assumptions. Another influential firm in the region of Wuxi, (its scale comparable with the enterprise controlled by Rong’s family) was the Yan’s family enterprise. Tomizawa Yoshia (Shimane University) synthesized materials in historical archives in Suzhou and Shanghai as well as the cotton mill’s own reports and other related newspapers, to reconstruct the management organization of the enterprise. Another Japanese scholar, Yuichi Isaac Kanemaru (Ritsumeikan University), carefully studied the case of Zhu Dachun and his opportunistic business investment in the Suzhou electric industry, analyzing how it triumphed over the capital exports from a Japanese corporation. The paper successfully provides a new understanding of compradors that considers them more than just a class bent on exploitation.
Lastly, two papers focused on peripheral issues. Ling-ling Lien (Academia Sinica) highlighted the function of business activities in the creation of city culture. She pointed out that the unique architecture of four big department stores fully transformed the landscape of the Nanjing Road in Shanghai. Several new installations in department stores such as neon lights and showcases, as well as novel marketing strategies, including the arrangement of fashion shows, changed the concept of “shopping” to make it synonymous with amusement. Through the analysis of the trademark battle between Shanghai New Medicine Trade Association and “Bayer” Pharma Co. in the 1930s, Ning Jennifer Chang (Academia Sinica) provided a detailed study of the competing strategies for both sides in different stages and indicated the importance of state power in the pharmaceutical industry.
It is encouraging to see, from the papers delivered, that there have been some important methodological breakthroughs. First of all, theories or concepts originating from social science, for example, symbolic capital, bibliometric analysis and social network approaches, proved they are worth applying to the research of Chinese business history. Indeed, these new methodologies provide researchers with new tools to interpret or make use of sources, which may have been ignored in the past, for example, the economic journals, and books used in Stephen Morgan’s paper. Another obvious breakthrough is in the focus on the Mayar Silk Mills Company case studies by three scholars from Fudan University and also Academia Sinica in Taiwan. Formerly, scholars concentrated on several important businesses such as Wing On, Sincere, Rong’s family enterprises, B.A.T. Company, and The China Merchants’ Steam Navigation Company. In unearthing the fresh case of the Mayar Silk Mills Company by several young scholars, a new avenue of academic research has emerged. However, some issues which scholars were concerned with during the workshop, such as the relationship between the state and business, and corporate governance still lacked vitality, merely remaining old topics with new approaches.
To sum up, the papers comprising the “New Paradigms of Chinese Business History : Conception and Case Studies” workshop can be grouped into several areas, such as methodologies of business history; state and business; case studies of Mayar Silk Mills Company; and corporation governance. Some of the breakthroughs appear in the utilization of social science theories as well as case study research. The workshop has provided new direction with new research, but there is still room for future research developments. Historians opened up the research of Chinese business history a long time ago, but ironically, almost all the theories that have been adopted have been borrowed from Western paradigms. Therefore, it would be a great contribution if scholars could generate a suite of systematic theories specifically designed for the interpretation of Chinese business history in the future.
