“中国创造”：“中国制造”的技术化生存

被迫转型还是主动求变？“中国制造”的出路除了寻求技术化生存外别无其他选择。     

挺起“中国制造”的脊梁

或许我们正陶醉于“中国因素为全球经济提供活力”、“机遇的新名字叫中国”等这样的口号，或许我们正为“世界工厂”落地中国而举杯庆贺。然而，“中国制造”现在正遭受着假冒伪劣和廉价仿制品的磨难。“世界工厂”的头衔，挥不去我们因缺乏自主知识产权而居于世界食物链下游的厄运。     

中国经济正在形成“拐点”

中国经济开始减速．这种趋势将进一步加剧。中国的股价在半年内下跌了一半．物价上涨的势头未能得到有效控制。连续5年保持了两位数增长的中国经济正在形成“拐点”。在中国经济环境趋于恶化的情况下,来自海外的“地下资金”正在增多,目的是获取人民币升值带来的收益或等中国股市暴跌之后低点买入。     

“中国制造”的国际生态

充满希望和曲折的“中国制造”国际化路径正在以其复杂的背景和饱满的过程向我们提供一个重新思考与解读的机会。     

中国制造与科技创新

“中国制造”正在世界范围内崛起,本文分析了“中国制造”的现状,阐述了科技创新对“中国制造”的影响,并对如何进行科技创新提出了一些建议。     

“中国制造”，向日本丰田学什么？

凭借独特的管理理念和制造体系，全球制造业的标杆企业——日本丰田公司实现了高速的成长，成为市值上千亿美元的巨无霸企业。当美国三大汽车巨头都被巨额亏损折磨得苦无出头之日时，日本丰田却在赚取越来越丰厚的巨额利润。但在中国这个“世界工厂”，众多制造型企业却忍受着“刀片利润”的折磨，在激烈的竞争中步履艰难。     

“中国制造”登上价值链高端

中国的制造部门正迅速登上价值链的高端。过去生产劣质服装和塑料玩具的中国工厂现在能够制造精密的电子元件或者每台价值数十万美元的机器。     

“中国制造”需要纠偏

“中国制造”表面上是在做产品推陈出新,但实质上是同类“中国制造”在互相重复,从而产生竞争的“虚荣”,因为“中国制造”相信——你的产品不能大量销售,就不能被人广泛认知,就不能形成品牌。这就是中国至今缺乏国际品牌的原因。     

追寻“中国制造”的正道

“中国制造”的困境和挑战 2008年爆发的金融危机引发了世界格局的变化和重组。其有两个标志性的结果：其一,全球性的政经力量发生了重组,G20取代G8成为应对全球性危机的平台。其二,产业竞争格局进一步深刻改变,昔日强大的“美国制造”出了问题,典型如底特律的汽车巨头破产、被重组：而一直独步天下的“日本制造”也出了问题,其最具代表性的企业——丰田汽车因质量问题发生全球召回事件。     

MADE IN THE WORLD: THE GLOBAL SPREAD OF PRODUCTION

We are moving rapidly into an age of transnational manufacturing, where things made in one country are shipped across national borders for further work, storage, sales, repair, remanufacture, recycle, or disposal; but our laws, policies, and management practices are slow in adjusting to this reality. They are often based on inaccurate premises. This article examines these premises and suggests what they imply for management of manufacturing. First, a common view is that manufacturing investment in the industrialized nations is declining and shifting to the developing countries. This is not true. Investment in manufacturing in both industrialized and developing nations is increasing and, in absolute value, there is a lot more investment in industrialized countries than in developing countries. Second, a related view argued by many is that manufacturing does not have a bright future in the rich countries. I argue that manufacturers can thrive in the industrialized countries if they learn how to add more value for the end users. They must go beyond productivity improvement to producing more technologically advanced and customized products, responding faster to changing customer demands, and appending more services to their products. Doing all this is easier in the industrialized countries because the needed skills and infrastructure are more readily available there. Third, another potentially misleading notion is related to why companies invest in manufacturing abroad. Access to low-cost production is not the main motivation in most cases; rather it is access to market. Superior global manufacturers use their foreign factories for much more: to serve their worldwide customers better, preempt competitors, work with sophisticated suppliers, collect critical marketing, technological, and competitive intelligence, and attract talented individuals into the company. They build integrated global production networks, not collections of disjointed factories that are spread internationally. Thus their investment in manufacturing abroad is not a substitute for investment at home, it is a complement. Building and managing such integrated global factor networks is the next challenge in manufacturing.     

THE LIMITS OF CAREER CONCERNS IN FEDERALISM: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA

Performance‐based promotion schemes in administrative hierarchies have limitations. Chinese provincial leaders, despite facing strong career concerns, make different policy decisions depending on their career backgrounds. Provincial party secretaries who have risen from low to high positions within the province they govern (“locals”) spend a higher share of budgetary resources on education and health care and invest less in construction infrastructure than party secretaries who have made their most significant career advancements in other provinces (“outsiders”). Identification comes from variation in central leadership and term limits. As the promotion mechanism rewards infrastructure investments, locals are less likely to be promoted at the end of the term. We explore various mechanisms and provide evidence that the difference between locals and outsiders is not driven by knowledge or experience. Several pieces of evidence suggest that locals cater to low‐level provincial elites, who helped them rise to power. Thus, local career trajectories limit the power of career concerns by fostering competing allegiances.     

POLITICAL SELECTION IN CHINA: THE COMPLEMENTARY ROLES OF CONNECTIONS AND PERFORMANCE

Who becomes a top politician in China? We focus on provincial leaders—a pool of candidates for top political office—and examine how their chances of promotion depend on their performance in office and connections with top politicians. Our empirical analysis, based on the curriculum vitae of Chinese politicians, shows that connections and performance are complements in the Chinese political selection process. This complementarity is stronger the younger provincial leaders are relative to their connected top leaders. To provide one plausible interpretation of these empirical findings, we propose a simple theory in which the complementarity arises because connections foster loyalty of junior officials to senior ones, thereby allowing incumbent top politicians to select competent provincial leaders without risking being ousted. Our findings shed some light on why a political system known for patronage can still select competent leaders.     

A STUDY OF HOW TAX POLICY IS MADE: ADVERTISING TAX,IOWA

Within a two year period, a state government enacted and repealed a tax on advertising service. These two closely related decisions provide a somewhat unique setting to observe if there is a common set of propositions that helps explain both decision processes. The tax enactment scenario serves to provide a set of empirical propositions about the decision process. The second scenario is treated as a modified replication to partially test the reliability of these propositions.     

DIFFUSING KNOWLEDGE WHILE SPREADING GOD'S MESSAGE: PROTESTANTISM AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY IN CHINA, 1840–1920

We provide an account of how Protestantism promoted economic prosperity in China—a country in which Protestant missionaries penetrated far and wide during 1840–1920, but only a tiny fraction of the population had converted to Christianity. By exploiting the spatial variation in the missionaries’ retreat due to the Boxer Uprising to identify the diffusion of Protestantism, we find that the conversion of an additional communicant per 10,000 people increases the overall urbanization rate by 18.8% when evaluated at the mean. Moreover, 90% of this effect comes from knowledge diffusion activities associated with schools and hospitals erected by the missionaries. (JEL: N35, Z12, O18)     

中远散货运输(集团)有限公司

<正>中远散货运输(集团)有限公司(简称:中散集团)隶属于中远集团,是中国远洋控股股份有限公司的重要成员企业,由中远散货运输有限公司(以下简称中远散运)、青岛远洋运输有限公司(以下简称青岛远洋)、中远(香港)航运有限公司/深圳远洋运输股份有限公司(以下简称香港航运/深圳远洋)等三家(四地)专业化航运企业整合组建而成,2011年12月21日挂牌营运,总部设在北京。     

GRADUATE EDUCATION IN QUANTITATIVE METHODS IN THE AACSB SCHOOLS

The status of Quantitative Methods in business education is perhaps less “standard” and less understood than any other field. This is probably even more true at the graduate than at the undergraduate level. Courses which are normally considered to be Quantitative Methods courses are often housed in a wide range of departments. Some courses which would normally be classified as Quantitative Methods courses are also housed in colleges other than Business Administration. In order to determine the current status of graduate quantitative methods curricula in schools of business, a survey was made of the member institutions of the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. This paper presents the survey findings.