Economic Governance and the Challenge of Flexibility in East Asia

This book analyzes the institutional underpinnings of East Asia's dynamic growth by exploring the interplay between governance and flexibility. As the challenges of promoting and sustaining economic growth become ever more complex, firms in both advanced and industrializing countries face constant pressures for change from markets and technology. Globalization, heightened competition, and shorter product cycles mean that markets are increasingly volatile and fragmented. To contend with demands for higher quality, quicker delivery and cost efficiencies, firms must enhance their capability to innovate and diversify. Achieving this flexibility, in turn often requires new forms of governance -arrangements that facilitate exchange of resources among diverse yet interdependent economic actors. Moving beyond the literature's emphasis on developed economies, this volume emphasizes the relevance of the links between governance and flexibility for understanding developing East Asia's explosive economic growth over the past quarter century. In case studies that encompass a variety of key industrial sectors and countries, the contributors emphasize the importance of network patterns of governance for facilitating flexibility in firms throughout the region. Their analyses illuminate both the strengths and limitations of recent growth strategies and offer insights into prospects for continued expansion in the wake of the East Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s.

ISBN 0742509443   Pages 288 ISBN13 9780742509443 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Rowman & Littlefield   Weight (grammes) 345 Imprint Rowman & Littlefield   Published in Lanham, MD Format Paperback   Height (mm) 230 Publication date 01 Mar 2001   Width (mm) 151 Library of Congress 00062653   Spine width (mm) 14 DEWEY 330.95   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC21

		Introduction: Economic Governance and Flexible Production in East Asia by Frederic C. Deyo and Richard F. Doner		1
1		Sources of Success in Uncertain Markets: The Taiwanese Footwear Industry by Lu-lin Cheng		33
2		Flexibility under Unorganized Industrialism? The Experience of Industrial Restructuring in Hong Kong by Tai Lok Lui and Stephen W. K. Chiu		55
3		Governance and Flexibility: The East Asian Garment Industry by Richard P. Appelbaum and David A. Smith		79
4		Dynamic Flexibility and Sectoral Governance in the Thai Auto Industry: The Enclave Problem by Frederic C. Deyo and Richard F. Doner		107
5		Catching Up and Postcrisis Industrial Upgrading: Searching for New Sources of Growth in Korea's Electronics Industry by Dieter Ernst		137
6		Politics, Institutions, and Flexibility: Microelectronics Transnationals and Machine Tool Linkages in Malaysia by Rajah Rasiah		165
7		Flexible Production, High-Tech Commodities, and Public Policies: The Hard Disk Drive Industry in Singapore by Poh-Kam Wong		191
		Conclusion: Network Governance, Flexibility, and Development amid Crisis by Frederic C. Deyo and Richard F. Doner and Eric Hershberg		217
		Index		229
		About the Contributors		241

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