The research institute, having entered the second stage of the plan, pursued its 1st and 2nd sub-tasks under the higher task titled “The Economic Practice and the Change of Modern Corporate Culture in China.” First of all, the 1st sub-task pursued ...
The research institute, having entered the second stage of the plan, pursued its 1st and 2nd sub-tasks under the higher task titled “The Economic Practice and the Change of Modern Corporate Culture in China.” First of all, the 1st sub-task pursued researches on the following three topics. The first topic concerns China’s traditional trading culture and practices. The second one concerns China’s traditional trade vocabulary and traders’ business mind. The third one concerns modern China’s trade capital and finance, financial customs and behaviors. The first topic is, once again, divided into the first sub-topic “the tradition of Chinese trade culture and its ‘ideal trader’” and the second one “trade customs and market structure in Ming-Qing dynasties.” The first sub-topic examined how and with what kind of mind Chinese traders did business and reacted to various environments, by looking into the surroundings in which they grew up and the turbulent society at the time. Moreover, it also examined, generally, the transformations they went through and the changes of their mentality in the advent of modernity. In this line of thought, researches were done, in the first year, about ‘traders’ in China’s Confucian tradition; in the second year, about the changes of traders’ mentality shown in China’s pre-modern legal codes; in the third year, about the trade philosophy of traditional Chinese traders. The second sub-topic is meant to deepen and improve the researches done in the previous first stage. All in all, the first stage of research focused on the private sector, whereas the second stage tries to focus on government policies over such private sector. In this vein, researches have been done, in the first year, concerning the relationship between trade-industry organizations and markets in Huánan Region in Qing Dynasty; in the second year, concerning the market structure of Chongqing Region in late Qing Dynasty; in the third year, concerning Chinese trade customs and behaviors shown in Laoqida (老乞大). The second topic is on China’s traditional trade vocabulary and the changes of traders’ business mind. Its detailed topic is titled “An Interdisciplinary Study on the History of Trades in Ming-Qing Dynasties and the Historical Lexicology of Chinese.” More than 500 trade-related vocabulary from 9 kinds of exegesis and divination texts were analyzed: an in-depth analysis of such trade vocabulary in the first year; tracing the mutations of trade language comparing 4 different versions of Laoqida in the second year; the enlightenment of the relationship between traditional and modern Chinese trade vocabulary in the third year. The third topic is divided into the first sub-topic “Government Power and Traders in Traditional China’s International Commerce—An Example of Guangdong and Shanghai” and the second one “Modern China’s Bank Policy and Changes of Finance.” The former focuses on government power and traders, and thereby investigates how such a problematic influences international trade and, as a result, traders came into being and progress in Guangzhou and Shanghai. More specifically, in the first year, the research was done on conflicts and cooperations between vending traders and Qing government in international commerce; in the second year, on the contours and characteristics of silk exports in Shanghai in late Qing Dynasty; in the third year, on the rise and progress of silk traders in Guangzhou and Shanghai again in late Qing Dynasty. The second sub-topic focuses on government’s bank and currency policies and the changes of financial businesses resulting from them. Therefore, it investigates China’s domestic banks and foreign banks as well as “money-holders”(錢莊) that resisted such large-sized banks in domestic regional finance. Research in this vein was, in the first year, on foreign banks’ launching in China and China’s regional financial network in late Qing Dynasty, especially on the case of Hong Kong-Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC); in the second year, on China’s policies on banks and ‘Chinese banks’ in late Qing Dynasty (Min-Chu Period); in the third year, on Nanjing government’s currency reformation and “money-holders” in Shanghai. Second of all, as regards the 2nd sub-task mentioned in the beginning, the following four topics were covered. The first topic is on modern China’s corporate culture. The second one is on modern China’s distribution markets. The third one is on modern China’s finance and legal system. The first topic, as already mentioned, concerns modern China’s corporate culture. If we take China’s traditional culture, we can presume that its corporate culture should imply abundant things. Nevertheless, it is in 1985~6 that the concept of modern ‘corporate culture’ was introduced in China; it also overlaps with the time period in which ‘culture fever’ was prevalent in China. Our research institute investigated China’s corporate culture from many aspects, for we thought that, in order to predict the success of a corporation in a long term, we should divulge its corporate culture in the first. For this first topic was investigated, in the first year, China’s traditional traders and modern corporate social responsibility; in the second year, regional culture and industry cluster in Onju region in China; in the third year, organizational culture, leadership types, and corporate forms in Chinese firms. The second topic concerns modern China’s distribution markets. In China, distribution companies are called ‘commerce firms’ (商業企業) in distinction to production companies. Foreign commerce firms wishing to launch in China are increasing and are getting very competitive against each other, and new forms of distribution introduced by such foreign companies are deeply affecting the pre-existing distribution markets. For this second topic was studied, in the first year, the case of a Chinese firm ‘Lianhua’; in the second year, cultural segmentation and brand attitudes of Chinese consumers; in the third year, marketing strategies for different Chinese consumer segments. The third topic concerns modern China’s finance and legal system. An in-depth understanding of China’s trading customs and market culture requires, of course, that of its institutional environments such as financial systems and, furthermore, a comprehensive understanding of its international trading customs and institutions. Therefore, we should also observe China’s trading customs and market culture on the basis of its financial institutions and legal system. For this third topic was studied, in the first year, green finance in China; in the second year, China’s international trade institutions; in the third, laws of production and responsibility and system of financial decentralization in China. The fourth topic concerns modern China’s corporate governance structure. There are definitions of corporate governance in a wider sense as well as in a narrow sense. Corporate governance in a wider sense includes all the interest-related network for the running of a firm, whereas corporate governance in a narrow sense includes board of directors, executives, and shareholders only. For this topic was studied, in the first year, CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility) of Chinese commerce banks; in the second year, corporate governance structure of Chinese financial banks; in the third, the interrelationship between Chinese government’s finance department and the corporate governance structure of city commerce banks.