ABSTRACT
This chapter examines East Asian relationship-based business networks, factors that explain them and how and why their organisational characteristics might change in the future. These networks are largely identified by their home base — namely, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Southeast Asian economies. The People’s Republic of China is not included in this analysis. Although the structure of industrial ownership has changed dramatically since reforms began in 1979 — from dominance by state-owned enterprises to greater diversity including privately-owned ventures, joint ventures with foreigners and other forms of collectively-owned enterprises — relationship-based networks are not yet significant. Explicit comparison with Western firms is not the purpose here; rather, this chapter provides a comparison of attributes of international networks of both Asian and Western origin operating in the region to examine possible patterns of convergence in economic organisation as internationalisation occurs. For clarity of analysis, business networks are defined as a subset of the ‘business system’, by which I mean the ways firms are organised to carry out production and exchange, both within and among firms.
