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Engineering growth: Business group structure and firm performance in China's transition economy

Publication ,  Journal Article
Keister, LA
Published in: American Journal of Sociology
January 1, 1998

Business groups have received increasing attention from academics interested in interorganizational relations and their impact on firms. As part of industrial reform, the Chinese government began in the mid-1980s to encourage firms to form business groups with structural characteristics that promised to enhance financial performance and productivity. Using 1988-90 panel data on China's 40 largest business groups and their 535 member firms, the study finds that the presence and predominance of interlocking directorates and finance companies in business groups improved the financial performance and productivity of the groups' member firms. In addition, firms in groups with nonhierarchical organizational structures performed better than firms in hierarchical groups, suggesting that complete integration into a hierarchical organization is not an optimal strategy.

Duke Scholars

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Published In

American Journal of Sociology

DOI

ISSN

0002-9602

Publication Date

January 1, 1998

Volume

104

Issue

2

Start / End Page

404 / 440

Related Subject Headings

  • Sociology
  • 4410 Sociology
  • 1608 Sociology
 

Citation

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ICMJE
MLA
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Keister, L. A. (1998). Engineering growth: Business group structure and firm performance in China's transition economy. American Journal of Sociology, 104(2), 404–440. https://doi.org/10.1086/210043
Keister, L. A. “Engineering growth: Business group structure and firm performance in China's transition economy.” American Journal of Sociology 104, no. 2 (January 1, 1998): 404–40. https://doi.org/10.1086/210043.
Keister LA. Engineering growth: Business group structure and firm performance in China's transition economy. American Journal of Sociology. 1998 Jan 1;104(2):404–40.
Keister, L. A. “Engineering growth: Business group structure and firm performance in China's transition economy.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 104, no. 2, Jan. 1998, pp. 404–40. Scopus, doi:10.1086/210043.
Keister LA. Engineering growth: Business group structure and firm performance in China's transition economy. American Journal of Sociology. 1998 Jan 1;104(2):404–440.
Journal cover image

Published In

American Journal of Sociology

DOI

ISSN

0002-9602

Publication Date

January 1, 1998

Volume

104

Issue

2

Start / End Page

404 / 440

Related Subject Headings

  • Sociology
  • 4410 Sociology
  • 1608 Sociology