ABSTRACT
The third chapter presents the main empirical research findings, in the form of ten in-depth case studies based on South African firms’ actual experience of doing business in China and, in the process, negotiating both formal and informal institutional environments as well as the standard and sometimes quite idiosyncratic challenges of doing business in this complex economy. The case studies are drawn from a cross section of economic sectors, and are paired – usually presenting slightly more successful and less successful experiences in broadly comparable political economic situations. Each of the case studies is also examined against the three-dimensional institutional model that was developed in Chapter Two, in part to help provide structure and consistency to the presentation of the empirical material, but also as a means of evaluating the validity and robustness of the model itself.
