Chinese Firms Between Hierarchy And Market: The Contract Management Responsibility System In China (studies On The Chinese Economy)

This series analyses issues in China's current economic development, and sheds light upon that process by examining China's economic history. It contains a wide range of books on the Chinese economy past and present, and includes not only studies written by leading Western authorities, but also translations of the most important works on the Chinese economy produced within China. It intends to make a major contribution towards understanding this immensely important part of the world economy. This book explores the enterprise reform in China in general, and the Contract Management Responsibility System (CMRS) in particular. The latter is an institutional arrangement to deal with the relation between the government and the state-owned enterprise which has always been at the centre of the enterprise reform. This book is based on four in-depth case-studies and reveals the interaction taking place between the government and enterprise under the system. The research shows that to establish a market-type relation between the government and enterprise is a complicated and dynamic process. It involves understanding two different economic mechanisms, market and hierarchy, and the interactions taken by two parties. Drawing on empirical work, the CMRS is examined from an institutional perspective and provides a holistic view of the changes in Chinese enterprises. This book is about the enterprise reform in China in general, and the Contract Management Responsibility System (the CMRS) in particular. The latter is an institutional arrangement to deal with the relation between the government and the state-owned enterprise which has always been at the centre of the enterprise reform. This research is based on four in-depth case studies of Chinese state-owned companies.