A Chinese State Enterprise under the Reforms: What Model of Capitalism?

Abstract

To be successfully competitive, state enterprises in China have recast themselves in the image of capitalist companies. The term ¿capitalist company¿ begs an important question, however, given that not all forms of capitalism are alike. Japanese and American-style firms, for example, take quite different approaches to many aspects of capitalist management. Our research at one state enterprise, a prosperous distillery, reveals that from the 1980s into the 2000s it instituted practices similar in many respects to the Japanese model.