Collaborative Research: Business Organization and Network Relations of Foreign Manufacturing Ventures in the Yangtze Delta Region, China

商业活动的全球化是当代世界经济的一个中心特征；它是国家和地方经济生产和再生产的重要力量。关于商业活动全球化的原因和后果的学术研究通常集中在资本主义生产方式的元叙述或全球-地方关系的宏观解释上。缺乏关于东道国经济的当地商业组织和外国企业在其全球/当地限制和机会方面的关系的系统的建制一级的研究。本研究旨在探讨外国公司在中国建立网络的方式及其对企业绩效和当地经济发展的相应影响。在对长三角地区上海、苏州、南京和杭州四个城市外商制造业企业的本地企业组织和关系进行详细调查的基础上，本研究还从投资的主要结构特征和四个城市的社会经济和制度环境两方面考察了本地企业组织和企业关系的差异。该研究将采用邮政调查和个人访谈两种方法收集数据，并将使用一系列定量和定性方法进行分析。潜在的假设是，企业的营销/材料/技术网络在空间上比生产网络更分散，它们与本土企业的相互作用程度有限。本文进一步假设外国企业在确保合作的地方关系方面是积极的，和谐的地方企业间关系和风险-当局关系的存在对风险绩效和地方发展具有积极的影响。这项研究将有助于更好地了解外国公司如何根据其全球/当地限制和机会阐明其在东道国经济中的业务网络。它将为全球化、商业组织、经济网络和全球-地方关系的研究提供一个更全面、更综合的理论和实证框架。在实践层面，该研究将提供有关长三角地区外商投资环境的重要经验信息，可作为外国公司在中国建立成功投资和商业关系的一套标准的基础。

The globalization of business activity is a central feature of the contemporary world economy; it is a significant force in the production and re-production of national and local economies. Academic inquires concerning the causes and consequences of globalization of business activity have generally focused on meta-narratives of capitalistic mode of production or macro-explanations of global-local relations. Systematic establishment-level studies pertaining to the local business organization and relations of foreign ventures in host economies with respect to their global/local constraints and opportunities are lacking. This study aims to examine the ways foreign firms articulate their networks in China and the corresponding impacts on venture performance and local economic development. Based upon a detailed investigation of the local business organization and relations of foreign manufacturing ventures in four cities in the Yangtze Delta region (Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, and Hanzhou), the study also examines the differences in local business organization and relations of ventures with respect to major structural characteristics of the investments and the socioeconomic and institutional environments of the four cities. The study will employ both postal survey and personal interview methods for gathering data, and a range of quantitative and qualitative methods will be used for analysis. The underlying hypotheses are that the marketing/material/technology networks of the ventures are spatially more dispersed than the production networks, and that their extent of interaction with indigenous enterprises is limited. It is further hypothesized that foreign ventures are active in securing cooperative local relations, and that the existence of harmonious local inter-firm and venture-authority relationships has positive impacts on venture performance and local development. The study will provide a better understanding of how foreign firms articulate their business networks in host economies with respect to their global/local constraints and opportunities. It will lead to the development of a more comprehensive and integrated theoretical and empirical framework for the studies of globalization, business organization, economic networks, and global-local relations. At a practical level, the study will provide important empirical information regarding the foreign investment environments in the Yangtze Delta region, which can serve as a basis for foreign firms to establish a set of criteria for successful ventures and business relationships in China.