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一股重要力量。 关于商业活动全球化的原因和后果的学术研究一般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。 缺乏对当地企业组织和东道国外国企业在全球/当地限制和机会方面的关系进行系统的机构一级研究。 本研究旨在探讨外国企业在中国建立网络的方式及其对风险企业绩效和当地经济发展的影响。 本文通过对长江三角洲地区四个城市（上海、苏州、南京和杭州）的外资制造业企业在当地的企业组织和关系的详细调查，考察了外资制造业企业在当地的企业组织和关系与投资的主要结构特征以及四个城市的社会经济和制度环境的差异。 研究将采用邮寄调查和个人访问的方法收集数据，并采用一系列定量和定性方法进行分析。 基本假设是，企业的销售/材料/技术网络在空间上比生产网络更加分散，它们与当地企业的互动程度有限。 它进一步假设，外国企业是积极的，以确保当地的合作关系，以及存在和谐的当地企业间和风险管理机构的关系，对风险绩效和当地的发展有积极的影响。这项研究将使人们更好地了解外国公司如何根据其全球/当地的制约因素和机会，在东道国经济中建立其商业网络。 它将导致全球化，商业组织，经济网络和全球-地方关系的研究更全面和综合的理论和实证框架的发展。 在实践层面上，本研究将提供有关长江三角洲地区外商投资环境的重要经验信息，这些信息可以作为外国公司在中国建立一套成功企业和商业关系的标准的基础。

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.