ABSTRACT
Since the early 1990s, it has been argued that Chinese enterprises work along “networks” that lend it flexibility and power (see e.g. Redding 1990; Kotkin 1993; East Asian Analytical Unit 1995; Weidenbaum and Hughes 1996). Most of these studies promote the Weberian view that the “spirit” of the ethnic Chinese enterprise is founded in belief systems. Ethnic networks have reputedly emerged as an avenue for co-ethnics, who are minorities in a country where the state has been hostile to the development of their economic interests, to cooperate in business for mutual benefit. Chinese capital is conceptualized primarily as intra-ethnic networks, based on cooperation and trust, to help reduce transaction costs.
