Transition Trajectories for Market Structure and Firm Strategy in China
研究中国转型经济中企业战略选择，通过制药业案例揭示组织能力与交易成本日益重要，提出区分不同互补资产转型轨迹的分析框架。
Research in transition economies like China has sought and found explanations for strategic behaviour based on institutional and other social processes, leading to descriptions of China's emerging business system as ‘network capitalism’. This paper argues, however, that organizational capabilities and transaction costs are increasingly important influences on strategic choice as economic reforms proceed. An in‐depth case study of one firm's behaviour in two different asset markets – R&D and distribution in the Chinese pharmaceutical industry – illustrates fundamental differences in firm strategies for securing these assets. To account for this variety and move beyond the homogeneity implied by prior research, we propose a framework for differentiating the transition trajectories for different types of complementary assets. We propose conditions under which all three perspectives – institutional and social structure, organizational capabilities and transaction costs – predict similar trajectories and firm strategies, but different decision processes, and when their predictions differ.