Customer Reviews

Business Networks in Asia: Promises, Doubts, and Perspectives

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A compendium of chapters by different academics in the field of network theory and its application in Asia. The chapters are strong in describing the dynamics of Asian business networks. The authors avoid the tendancy among many analysts and academics to denigrate the merits of Asian management practices in general and of networks in particular.

The hidden organizational agenda of Japanese success. ... Recommended Why have Japanese companies become successful? This book offers a new explanation. It is argued that success of Japanese companies is not due to manufacturing prowess; access to cheap capital; or lifetime employment and other human resources management practices - although all of these factors are important. Instead the claim is made that Japanese companies have been successful because of their skills and expertise at creating knowledge in strategic networks. This book is highly recommended.

This book is exciting to read, coming as it does in the wake of the collapse of the Japanese bubble economy and the Asian monetary crisis. What looked to be invincible massive corporations now seem to be mere edifices once supported by nepotism and unsecured bank loans. Richter draws on his experience as an editor to select chapters from many authors so take the reader easily through a mass of detail. All in all it builds up to an impressive document, which, far from boring the reader continues to offer insights in the operations of the Asian firm. Many of the contributing authors suggest that organisational slack is to be placed where it can be effective, and this applies also to their use of networks which are to be exploited for the strategic benefit of the co-operating organisations.

Inevitably, in this day and age, the authors grapple with the development of Organisational Learning and the management of Knowledge Creation in the context of firms networking for their joint advantage. And so many authors come to the acknowledgement that the visions of senior management can act at once as goals, and also as the catalyst for individuals to unfold goal-oriented tasks - essentially noting these chief executives have to be both anarchists and organisers within a network setting where other like-minded persons co-operate trustingly.

Recommended

This is a serious book, yet written for a general audience. Without jargon, it brings social science analysis to bear on the Asian business trend that is changing competition in global markets. A must-read.