The economies of East and Southeast Asia continue to exhibit the world's fastest growth rates. This rapid expansion is served by the various business networks that dominate the economic landscape. Few scholars have examined these networks and fewer yet have compared and contrasted the striking regional differences found among them. The studies in this volume are among the first to offer a comparative viewpoint. The contributing authors are specialists from Asia and the United States, who examine business networks in Japan, South Korea and the Chinese dominated economies of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. An interdisciplinary approach is adopted, the economic issues are considered in their sociological, organizational and political contexts.

This book examines the rise of Chinese capitalism and discusses its effects on both itself and its neighbours. The collection is comprised of sixteen previously published or forthcoming articles that combined provide historical, comparative and theoretically informed perspectives on the spread of Chinese capitalism.

Beginning in the 1950s, Taiwan rapidly industrialized, becoming a tributary to an increasingly "borderless" East Asian economy. And though President Trump has called for the end of "American carnage"—the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs—domestic retailers and merchandisers still willingly ship production overseas, primarily to Taiwan. In this book, Gary G. Hamilton and Cheng-shu Kao show how Taiwanese businesspeople have played a tremendous, unsung role in their nation's continuing ascent. From prominent names like Pou Chen and Hon Hai to the owners of small and midsize firms, Taiwan's contract manufacturers have become the world's most sophisticated suppliers of consumer products the world over. Drawing on over 30 years of research and more than 800 interviews, Hamilton and Kao tell these industrialists' stories. The picture that emerges is one of agile neo-capitalists, caught in the flux of a rapidly changing landscape, who tirelessly endeavor to profit on it. Making Money reveals its subjects to be at once producers of economic globalization and its byproducts. While the future of Taiwanese business is uncertain, the durability of demand-led capitalism is not.

Beginning in the 1950s, Taiwan rapidly industrialized, becoming a tributary to an increasingly "borderless" East Asian economy. And though President Trump has called for the end of "American carnage"—the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs—domestic retailers and merchandisers still willingly ship production overseas, primarily to Taiwan. In this book, Gary G. Hamilton and Cheng-shu Kao show how Taiwanese businesspeople have played a tremendous, unsung role in their nation's continuing ascent. From prominent names like Pou Chen and Hon Hai to the owners of small and midsize firms, Taiwan's contract manufacturers have become the world's most sophisticated suppliers of consumer products the world over. Drawing on over 30 years of research and more than 800 interviews, Hamilton and Kao tell these industrialists' stories. The picture that emerges is one of agile neo-capitalists, caught in the flux of a rapidly changing landscape, who tirelessly endeavor to profit on it. Making Money reveals its subjects to be at once producers of economic globalization and its byproducts. While the future of Taiwanese business is uncertain, the durability of demand-led capitalism is not.

The huge expansion of new marketplaces and new retailers over the last fifty years has created a retail revolution.These large and globally sophisticated retailers have harnessed the new technologies in communications and logistics to build consumer markets around the world and to create suppliers, new types of manufacturers, that provide consumers with whatever goods they want to buy. These global retailers are at the hub of the new global economy. They are the new Market Makers, and they have changed the way the global economy works.
Despite the fact that this retail revolution unfolded right before our eyes, this book is the first to describe the market-making capabilities of these retailers. In eleven chapters by leading scholars, The Market Makers provides a detailed and highly readable analysis of how retailers have become the leading drivers of the new global economy.

This book examines the rise of Chinese capitalism and discusses its effects on both itself and its neighbours. The collection is comprised of sixteen previously published or forthcoming articles that combined provide historical, comparative and theoretically informed perspectives on the spread of Chinese capitalism.

The economies of South Korea and Taiwan in the second half of the twentieth century are to scholars of economic development what the economy of Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteeth centuries is to economic historians. This book, first published in 2006, is a collaboration between a leading trade economist and a leading economic sociologist specializing in East Asia, and offers an explanation of the development paths of post-World War II Korea and Taiwan. The ambitions of the authors go beyond this, however. They use these cases to reshape the way economists, sociologists, and political scientists will think about economic organization in the future. They offer nothing less than a theory of, and extended evidence for, how capitalist economies become organized. One of the principal empirical findings is that a primary cause for the industrialization of East Asia is the retail revolution in the United States and the demand-responsiveness of Asian manufacturers.

The economies of South Korea and Taiwan in the second half of the twentieth century are to scholars of economic development what the economy of Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteeth centuries is to economic historians. This book, first published in 2006, is a collaboration between a leading trade economist and a leading economic sociologist specializing in East Asia, and offers an explanation of the development paths of post-World War II Korea and Taiwan. The ambitions of the authors go beyond this, however. They use these cases to reshape the way economists, sociologists, and political scientists will think about economic organization in the future. They offer nothing less than a theory of, and extended evidence for, how capitalist economies become organized. One of the principal empirical findings is that a primary cause for the industrialization of East Asia is the retail revolution in the United States and the demand-responsiveness of Asian manufacturers.

The huge expansion of new marketplaces and new retailers over the last fifty years has created a retail revolution. These large and globally sophisticated retailers have harnessed the new technologies in communications and logistics to build consumer markets around the world and to create suppliers, new types of manufacturers, which provide consumers with whatever goods they want to buy. These global retailers are at the hub of the new global economy. They are the new Market Makers, and they have changed the way the global economy works.
Despite the fact that this retail revolution unfolded right before our eyes, this book is the first to describe the market-making capabilities of these retailers. In eleven chapters by leading scholars, The Market Makers provides a detailed and highly readable analysis of how retailers have become the leading drivers of the new global economy.

This classic text by Fei Xiaotong, China's finest social scientist, was first published in 1947 and is Fei's chief theoretical statement about the distinctive characteristics of Chinese society. Written in Chinese from a Chinese point of view for a Chinese audience, "From the Soil" describes the contrasting organizational principles of Chinese and Western societies, thereby conveying the essential features of both. Fei shows how these unique features reflect and are reflected in the moral and ethical characters of people in these societies. This profound, challenging book is both succinct and accessible. In its first complete English-language edition, it is likely to have a wide impact on Western social theorists. Gary G. Hamilton and Wang Zheng's translation captures Fei's jargonless, straightforward style of writing. Their introduction describes Fei's education and career as a sociologist, the fate of his writings on and off the Mainland, and the sociological significance of his analysis. The translators' epilogue highlights the social reforms for China that Fei drew from his analysis and advocated in a companion text written in the same period.

At midnight on June 30, 1997, Hong Kong became part of the People's Republic of China. The transfer of Hong Kong sovereignty from Great Britain to China was an extraordinary historical event, signifying the end of the West's colonial presence in Asia and the rise of China's hegemony. In 150 years as a British colony, Hong Kong changed from a barely inhabitable colonial entrepot to one of the world's leading financial and industrial centers. Faced with a new social and economic order under Chinese law, many Hong Kongers moved to a new country; others decided to stay; but many chose to maintain their lives and livelihoods in Hong Kong, while spreading their assets and their family members around the world. They bought apartments in London and condos in Vancouver, invested in firms in Guangzhou and Thailand, and sent their children to schools in Europe and Australia. These new up-market migrants have transformed a cosmopolitan outlook into a global presence. Cosmopolitan Capitalists focuses on the people of Hong Kong and how they are defining themselves under altered circumstances. It is a broad multi-disciplinary view of Hong Kong's transformation, written for a general audience by some of the world's foremost scholars on the region.

At midnight on June 30, 1997, Hong Kong became part of the People's Republic of China. The transfer of Hong Kong sovereignty from Great Britain to China was an extraordinary historical event, signifying the end of the West's colonial presence in Asia and the rise of China's hegemony.

In 150 years as a British colony, Hong Kong changed from a barely inhabitable colonial entrepot to one of the world's leading financial and industrial centers. Faced with a new social and economic order under Chinese law, many Hong Kongers moved to a new country; others decided to stay; but many chose to maintain their lives and livelihoods in Hong Kong, while spreading their assets and their family members around the world. They bought apartments in London and condos in Vancouver, invested in firms in Guangzhou and Thailand, and sent their children to schools in Europe and Australia. These new up-market migrants have transformed a cosmopolitan outlook into a global presence.

Cosmopolitan Capitalists focuses on the people of Hong Kong and how they are defining themselves under altered circumstances. It is a broad multidisciplinary view of Hong Kong's transformation, written for a general audience by some of the world's foremost scholars on the region.