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Chinese who have assumed some form of Chinese identities in material processes (e.g. through cross-cultural marriage) and discursive ways (e.g. through academic writings and popular press reports). My research focus therefore needs to transcend actors’ cultural identities and ethnic boundaries to arrive at a fuller appreciation of the complexity of Chinese capitalism – a methodological shift in my work in relation to the rise of poststructuralism in the so-called new economic geography (Gibson-Graham, 1996; Dixon and Jones, 1996; 1998; Thrift, 1996; 2000). This concern with the spatiality of actors is particularly important because the geography of actor networks is increasingly complex and oblivious to conventional measurements and analysis in economic geography and management studies (see more explanations in Dicken et al., 2001; Yeung, 2004b). “Chinese” business networks are now extending across space in both material and discursive ways – they are no longer exclusively ethnic Chinese in their composition and operationalization (and hence “Chinese” in inverted commas below to describe the involvement of non-Chinese in “Chinese” business networks). This is especially prevalent among Asia’s leading “Chinese” business conglomerates. Through direct investments abroad, they are able to shape the material context in which their investment objectives (e.g. market penetration) are satisfied. As discursive constructions, actors in “Chinese” business networks attempt to encourage more analysts and financiers in major global financial centers to talk about their business transactions and therefore generate favorable discourses to facilitate their capital raising and other related activities (see Olds and Yeung, 1999; Yeung, 2000; 2004a). These actors in “Chinese” business networks may not be exclusively family members or even ethnic Chinese. They may be international bankers, accountants, and consultants working for “Chinese” business firms. These actors are capable of influencing the nature and organization of Chinese capitalism from a distance (e.g. in London and New York). Unfolding the secrets of Chinese capitalism requires making explicit 16
how these non-Chinese actors are enrolled into and shape “Chinese” business networks. On the domestic front, gatekeepers in home countries continue to serve as vital intermediaries in Chinese capitalism so that family firms can use their monopolistic licenses and special privileges to generate capital to sustain their transnational operations. These home country intermediaries in Chinese capitalism are typically government bureaucrats, politicians, indigenous business partners, and so on. Disentangling their complex enrollment into “Chinese” business networks is again an important task in understanding the nature and organization of Chinese capitalism in East and Southeast Asia (see below for an example of Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong Holdings). Researching into the secrets of Chinese capitalism The Chinese capitalism example above shows that not only economic institutions are embedded in social relations, but also actors in these networks of relations have hybrid identities that are strongly influenced by their discursive and institutional contexts. Returning to Figure 1, I argue that an integrated method approach is an appropriate methodology to unfold the secrets of Chinese capitalism. In this section, I aim to reflect on the methodological realities of my decade-long research into Chinese capitalism. Starting with the choice of empirical data, I knew at the beginning of my research that an exclusive reliance on either primary data or secondary sources would be insufficient to unfold the secrets of Chinese capitalism. Instead, I had to combine both data sources and triangulate their efficacy and complementarity. For example, conducting large-scale surveys with such actors in Chinese capitalism as CEOs of family firms – a methodological approach much favoured in business school research (e.g. Tsang, 2002; Ahlstrom et al., 2004) – may be sufficient to generate some quantifiable establishment characteristics (e.g. firm size and employment) and statistical relationships on certain dependent variables (e.g. family ownership and financial performance). But it is not a meaningful method to explain the material and discursive 17
Page 1 and 2: Researching Hybridity in Social and
Page 3 and 4: This significant shift in my own re
Page 5 and 6: family firm. Prompted by these cele
Page 7 and 8: impact on the very subjects of rese
Page 9 and 10: my thinking becoming more reflexive
Page 11 and 12: action could bring about changes an
Page 13 and 14: variously known as “the siege men
Page 15: Carney and Gedajlovic, 2002). A str
Page 19 and 20: in Hong Kong and Singapore and a la
Page 21 and 22: discussion of the socio-spatial att
Page 23 and 24: subsequently able to reach several
Page 25 and 26: Implications for politics and pract
Page 27 and 28: to drop our esteemed claim to truth
Page 29 and 30: Chirot, Daniel and Reid, Anthony (e
Page 31 and 32: Lynn, Pann (ed.) (1998), The Encycl
Page 33 and 34: Yang, Mayfair Mei-Hui (1994), Gifts
Page 35: FIGURE 1. The Integrated Method App

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