State Business Alliances And Economic Development

This book argues that a key dynamic behind economic development in the emerging markets is the coordination between the state and businesses. Exploring the links between institutions, state--business alliances and economic development in the context of tumultuous market transitions since the 1980s, the book tackles the formation and sustainability of coordination-inducing institutions besides their mere existence, and points out the new modalities of coordination in the age of new developmentalism. Based on extensive original research in Turkey and Mexico embedded in a comparative historical analysis, the book shows how state--business alliances have been formed, collapsed and re-formed between the respective states and shifting business actors since the launching of market transitions. It demonstrates how both the state and business actors, and their cohesiveness vs. fragmentation, play crucial roles in the making and sustainability of the institutions, which are central to state--business alliances. It explores the emergence of new actors, the diversification of the organizational landscape, and the evolution of the ways in which the states interact with businesses throughout major economic and political transformations that helped transform the respective states and their interactions with the non-state actors. It draws on the meandering developmental trajectories of Turkey and Mexico from the 1970s to the present and goes on to draw some lessons for institution-building and market reforms in selected countries in North Africa.

Strategic alliances have generally been used to refer to relationships that allow an organization to access the strengths and capabilities of other organizations. The strategy behind such an alliance is for each firm in the alliance to draw on the core competencies of the other firm(s) with the goal of facilitating growth and development. In many advanced nations, strategic alliances are subsidized by the public sector in the belief that they advance economic growth. This public/private partnership often involves universities or government agencies as the public partner. This book was originally published as a special issue of Economics of Innovation and New Technology.

In order to analyze Brazil's recent accumulation of capital in the light of its continued dependence, Peter Evans focuses on the relationships among multinational corporations, local private entrepreneurs, and state-owned enterprises that have developed in Brazil over the last decade. He argues that while relations among the three kinds of capital continue to be contradictory, a triple alliance has been formed that provides the social structural basis for the pattern of local industrialization that has emerged. The author begins with a review of the theories of imperialism and dependency in the third world. Placing the Brazilian experience of the last twenty years in its historical context, he traces the country's evolution from the period of "classic dependence" at the turn of the century to the current stage of "dependent development." In conclusion, Professor Evans discusses the implications of the Brazilian model for other third world countries. Examining the nature of the triple alliance as it is manifested in such industries as pharmaceuticals, textiles, and petrochemicals, the author reveals the complex differentiation of the groups' roles in industrialization and lays bare the grounds for their collaboration and their conflict. He consequently shows how the differing interests, power, and capabilities of the three groups have combined to produce a system promoting industrialization that benefits the elite partnership but excludes the larger population from the rewards of growth.

This document consists of three closely related reports, dealing with "State Governments", "Regional Councils", and "Local Econcomic Development Agencies", respectively, together with a fourth document, a preceding overview. These documents draw from results of a project to identify successful approaches to coordinating economic development and employment and training programs and to assist agencies that want to initiate coordination efforts. Three complementary reports describe how local economic development agencies, regional councils, and state governments can link the functions of economic development and human development, how the responsibilities and resources of the different levels of government can blend effectively, and how the public and private sectors can collaborate to meet both the needs of business and the needs of individuals. The first of these three reports describes how some state governments have successfully linked their employment and training and economic development programs. Lessons are drawn from nine case studies for other states that want to undertake similar efforts. A list of contact persons and 21 references are included. The second report, on regional councils, provides case studies to illustrate the approaches taken by councils in Virginia and Kentucky in playing a catalytic role in promoting public/private partnerships and developing more effective means for working with business. The third report, on local economic development agencies, describes types of linkages, illustrates through case studies the issues in the establishment of linkages at the local level, and offers recommendations for properly structuring linkages. (YLB)

The World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg clearly identified the corporate sector as one of the key actors in the delivery of national and international poverty reduction targets in developing countries. "Partnerships" between government, civil society and business were proposed as one means whereby these poverty reduction targets were to be achieved. Despite the rhetoric, there was less consideration of how such partnerships could work in practice, the outcomes that could be achieved, or the relative merits of partnerships over other, more traditional approaches to development. This book is about partnerships between the private sector, government and civil society. Its objective is to share practical experiences in establishing and implementing such partnerships and to show how partnerships work. The focus is on the oil, gas and mining industries, as these sectors have tended to be the primary drivers of foreign investment in developing countries. These corporations increasingly operate in regions characterised by poor communities and fragile environments. The more effective use of external relationships to ensure the effective contribution of these investments to poverty reduction and local environmental management is critical, for the companies, for government, and for the poor. Putting Partnerships to Work is based on the work of the Secretariat of the Natural Resources Cluster (NRC) of Business Partners for Development (BPD). This major research programme, which ran from 1998 to 2002, aimed to enhance the role of oil, gas and mining corporations in international development. The programme objective was to produce practical guidance, based on the experience of specific natural resource operations around the world, on how partnerships involving companies, government authorities and civil-society organisations can be an effective means of reducing investment risks and of promoting community and regional development. The programme encompassed partnerships in Colombia, Nigeria, India, Venezuela, Bolivia, Zambia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia and Tanzania. The specific projects that were implemented included not only "traditional" development projects such as the provision of water, healthcare or infrastructure but also themes as diverse as conflict prevention, regional development, micro-enterprise development and managing oil spill compensation. Based on the experience of establishing and implementing effective partnerships, the NRC identified good practice, and developed replicable guidelines, tools and training materials. This book is not only about good practice; it presents both the positive outcomes and lessons from the programme, as well as the risks and costs, and where things went wrong. It also provides evidence not only of the viability of partnerships (i.e. that partnerships "can work") but also evidence that partnership approaches can provide substantially better outcomes for all parties than can more traditional approaches to development or corporate social responsibility. For example, a road in India was constructed at 25% of the cost to government; it took just 11 months for a community health centre in Venezuela to become operational and with its long-term financial future assured; and primary education enrolment rates in the vicinity of a gold mine in Tanzania have jumped from a historic level of 60–80% to almost 100% (as a consequence of improved infrastructure and community awareness of the importance of education). These development and public-sector benefits have been accompanied by substantial business benefits, including significant reductions in the cost of community development initiatives and/or the leverage of additional resources, greater sustainability and viability of development projects and significant improvements to corporate reputation and their local "social licence to operate" with communities. The book argues that to achieve these benefits requires all parties to invest time and effort in first exploring the best design for the partnership, understanding the motivations of their potential partners and, once the partnership has been established, continuing to actively support the partnership and ensure its ongoing viability. Partnerships that engage the strengths of companies, government and civil society can, under the right conditions, yield better (and more sustainable) results for communities and for business than traditional approaches to development. The authors argue that, because it is built on the central idea of each partner "doing what they do best", the partnership approach offers an opportunity to rethink the way in which companies view they contributions to the livelihoods of local communities. Through partnerships it is possible that community development will be seen less as an "add-on" or "cost" to the company but more an integral part of business strategy providing significant commercial and other benefits. Perhaps most importantly, partnerships offer the potential for regional operating companies to change the perceptions of government and of civil society that the company will take the primary responsibility for local development. Rather, partnerships enable companies to locate themselves as one of (but not the only) agent of development in the local region. Partnerships enable communities to take charge of their own development needs, interacting with government to jointly design and maintain public services. They also allow government to play its proper role of fulfilling its public mandate, delivering necessary services and ensuring the quality and sustainability of development impacts. The challenges of poverty reduction in the developing world are so great that no one sector can address them on its own. Partnerships between business, government and civil society are a means of addressing this most fundamental of truths. It is hoped that this book will provide a road map for all those working towards making the elimination of poverty a reality.

Covers research on strategic alliances, and serves to lay out a research agenda on collaborative strategy and alliance management. This book covers the theoretical foundations that guide work on inter-firm collaboration, ranging from sociological perspectives to real options theory to diverse traditions within organizational economics.

South Korea is often cited as a case of miraculous transformation from poverty to prosperity. Korea’s achievement of moving from one of the world’s poorest countries as recently as the early 1960s to the ranks of the ten biggest economies only four decades later has rightly attracted interest from policymakers and scholars alike. This book identifies the factors that shaped relations between the state and big business in Korea, the ‘developmental alliance’. These factors offer a cogent framework in which to identify and predict changes in power relations between government and business. Rather than merely offering a means of explaining the rapid-growth phase of Korean development, the politics of the developmental alliance also help us understand how and why the Korean miracle turned to crisis in 1997 and why the subsequent recovery has been so uneven. In this way, the book highlights the political power of business, which is often underplayed in discussions of the development of Korea. It also sheds light on the constraints on policymakers during modernisation, and how power is shared among a small number of powerful parties. Illustrating the tumultuous politics of the ‘developmental alliance’ between business and government during the rise and decline of South Korea’s economic miracle, this book is an essential read for anyone interested in Korean politcs, economics and development,