Institutional Variety In East Asia

This illuminating book broadly addresses the emerging field of 'diversity of Capitalism' from a comparative institutional approach. It explores the varied patterns for achieving coordination in different economic systems, applying them specifically to China, Japan and South Korea. These countries are of particular interest due to the fact that they are often considered to have developed their own peculiar blend of models of capitalism. The expert contributors take a common institutional approach, focusing on institutions at the macro level. They present case studies to demonstrate the diversity of institutional patterns at the advent of the 21st century, both within the East Asian region and elsewhere. Examples of stability within existing institutions are illustrated alongside examples of comprehensive institutional change. Underpinning the case studies are a set of theoretical and empirical challenges for researchers concerned with national institutional settings, path dependence and endogenous dynamics.

This book explains the political origins and evolution of capitalist institutions in developing countries by looking at distinct patterns in the electronics industry in three Southeast Asian countries: Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. An analysis of the political determinants of these patterns has a number of theoretical and practical implications. It includes a new explanation for family business behavior, a unified framework for explaining capitalist varieties, a guide for institutional reform, and a comparative examination of three dynamic Asian economies that provides important insights to students, scholars, and people in business.

Yoshimatsu explores the causes and implications of the diverse degree of institution-building in East Asia by examining two processes of initiating and developing multilateral institutions in five policy areas: trade, finance, food security, energy security, and the environment.

Focuses both on specific regional organizations like ASEAN, The Asian Development Bank and APEC, as well as on key institutions such as East Asian legal systems, the media, organized labour, Asian business systems, and the developmental state.

In East Asia, higher education has relied heavily on private and marketized forces in its rapid development process. At the same time, state governments have introduced strong initiatives especially in upgrading the global positioning of their flagship universities through their pursuit of international competitiveness. Currently, these well-known characteristics of East Asian higher education are challenged by the necessity to formulate international dimensions for regional and global well-being, without a clear consensus as to a regional future vision. The changing roles of East Asian higher education in a new global environment have implications for academics and policy-makers who not only wish but also need to understand the most recent developments and future prospects of higher education from an East Asian point of view. In Emerging International Dimensions in East Asian Higher Education, authors from a wide variety of cultural and academic backgrounds examine the changing context of East Asian higher education in the global, regional, and national dimensions The analysis and case study material in this volume are strengthened by the wealth of contributors’ diverse national and professional backgrounds. Most have practical experience in the formulation of higher education policy in two or more countries. The range of disciplinary perspectives that contributors brought to the book – including sociology, political science, anthropology, economics, philosophy and history – strengthen the multi-disciplinary approach, credibility, and uniqueness of the work. Each chapter considers the impact of the emergence of international dimensions in East Asian Higher Education through detailed consideration of trends and debates over higher education reforms at the regional, sub-regional, inter-regional and national levels. Issues such as student mobility, cross-border higher education programs, quality assurance, and demands from the market economy, among others, are examined.

The increasing economic and political importance of East Asia in the global political economy requires a deeper analysis of the nature of the capitalist systems in this region than has been provided by the existing literature on comparative capitalisms. This volume brings together conceptual and empirical analyses of the evolving patterns of East Asian capitalism against the backdrop of regional and global market integration and periodic economic crises since the 1980s. Focusing on China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand, it provides an interdisciplinary account of variations, continuities, and changes in the institutional structures that govern financial systems, industrial relations, and product markets, and that shape the evolution of national political economies. While the volume encompasses a range of different cases, specific issues, and diverse methodologies, all the chapters address two dominant themes - the continuities and changes in the institutional underpinnings of capitalist development and the main driving forces behind them. The book thus provides an integrated analysis of how changing institutional practices in business, financial, and labour systems interact and affect the evolution of capitalist political economies in the region.

The concept of "innovation systems" has gained considerable attention from scholars and politicians alike. The concept promises not only to serve as a tool to explain sustained economic development, but also to provide policy-makers with scientifically grounded policy options to advance the growth of economies. The thrust of much recent literature has been to review existing empirical findings in order to deduce "best practice" models which are assumed to benefit all countries in a similar fashion. However, as this book argues, such ‘universal’ models often fail in both analysis and policy prescriptions, as they do not take into account sufficiently the circumstances and development trajectories of particular countries. With a foreword by Richard Whitley, this book discusses the extent to which the diagnoses and reform recommendations of recent work on innovation theory, and the related policy recommendations, actually apply to Japan and China. Making links between behavioural economics and institutional analysis, the book covers their regulatory framework, legal and science system, the labour and capital market, and intra-firm relations. It examines the present design and reasons underlying the Japanese and Chinese innovation systems, and based on those findings, emphasises the necessity for reform to secure the future competitiveness of both countries. The book is introduced by a foreword by Richard Whitley, Professor of Organisational Sociology at Manchester Business School.