Margit Osterloh ：Enterprise Ground Zero in China.pptVIP

Enterprise Ground Zero in China by Margit Osterloh University of Zurich and CREMA-Center for Research in Economics, Managment and the Arts Research Questions 1. How does entrepreneurship emerge as the outcome of instituional change in nascent markets? 2. How do economic activities aorund the firm (e.g. networks, government agencies) interact? Methodology Analytic narratives (Bates, Greif et al 1988): Dialogue between empirical case material and theory (New Institutional Economics) Data 104 interviews with managers and owners of private, middlescaled, domestic firms (25 - 200 employees) in the richest regions of China 15 interviews with (local?) tax authorities Results I Challenge of the conventional wisdom that only private property rights are able to create an efficient private business sector Entrepreneurs do not act as ?institution-taker“ but as ?institution-maker“ Self-organization of networks with blurred boundaries is crucial Results II Successful entrepreneurship ist based on - information gathering and information rents - social capital - alertness to organize interfirm relations ?It is a competition for insider information“ Results III Efficient corporate governance is not based on Owners = principals = residual claimant but on negotiations about control identifying areas of uncertainty networks as institutional solution to cope with uncertainty Results IV Underlying Processes are 1. Local embeddedness not based on family or birthplace but on trust, but no blind trust 2. Incentive contracts as soft enforcement devices (crop sharing, high intrafirm consumption) -Public ownership is not a constraint! 3. Government of social capital based on - alignment of social and commercial interests - weak central state, local tax regimes - networks with open boundaries, no clubs Questions concerning content I Networks conceived as governance structure (market, hierarchy, hybrid) or structure of relationships (density, centrali