Culture and Network Institutions in Hong Kong: A Hierarchy of Perspectives. A Response to Wilkinson: 'Culture, Institutions and Business in East Asia'
回应威尔金森对文化主义和制度主义解释的批评，提出融合正式市场、层级视角与非正式网络视角的理论框架，以识别香港商业活动中的文化影响，并讨论相关方法论问题。
In response to Barry Wilkinson's (1996) criticisms of the culturalist and institutionalist explanations of the structure of business in East Asia, this paper examines the influence of culture at the macro- and meso-level of business activity in Hong Kong. Aspects of Wilkinson's critique are criticized as unhelpful, whereas other aspects of it are taken as valid and are addressed. A theoretical framework is outlined which synthesises culturalist and institutionalist explanations constituted by combinations of models from formal market and hierarchy perspectives and informal network perspectives. This enables sufficient complexity to identify cultural influences, and reflects a general submission that only complex models contain the multiple social, political, economic and other influences inherent in cultural investigation. Simple organizational models, based upon assumptions of the market, are shown to be culture-bound in Anglo-Saxon ethnocentrism and of little validity in the Hong Kong context. The considerable methodological problems and research issues associated with this desirable synthesis of the culturalist and institutionalist explanations are discussed. Particular emphasis is placed upon the relevance of a 'network' approach, along with implications for 'strategy'. In addition, the implications for the promotion of 'intercultural' and interdisciplinary approaches amongst social scientists interested in Hong Kong and other 'Confucian Dynamic' economies are outlined.