The Internationalisation of Mainland Chinese Firms into Malaysia: From Obligated Embeddedness to Active Embeddedness

This paper examines the rationale by which mainland Chinese firms choose their coalition partners in their Malaysian ventures. I explore how, under certain political economic conditions, such cross-border investment and corporate tie-ups can be shaped to meet the Malaysian state’s objectives. I argue that the Malaysian state has enjoyed success in the construction sector by nurturing cooperation between its carefully groomed government-linked companies and mainland Chinese firms. Government-linked companies are useful coalition partners for the mainland Chinese firms because of the crucial role the state plays in creating a largely non-competitive industry that favours government-linked companies. Outside of the construction sector, however, the state has enjoyed markedly less success in fostering cooperation between the mainland Chinese firms and the government-linked companies. Consequently, the mainland Chinese firms possess more bargaining power vis-à-vis the state when they invest in these sectors, enjoying considerable autonomy in the selection of their coalition partners

Managing Technological Development: A Study of Vietnam’s Telecommunication Goods Industry

10.1080/15339114.2016.1227272Journal of Comparative Asian Development1502276-29

Value Chain Upgrading: Evidence from the Singaporean Aquaculture Industry

This paper examines the Singaporean aquaculture industry using an integrated perspective that draws on the global value chain and global production network approaches. The paper focuses especially on the upgrading efforts of the fish farming firms operating at the industry’s upstream node. Based on research and qualitative personal interviews with firms involved in the Singaporean aquaculture industry, this paper argues that the city-state’s wider institutional context – dirigisme in governing the utilization of land and sea space, and commitment to a liberalized trade regime to feed its populace – complicates the upgrading efforts of the fish farming firms. Notwithstanding the inherent complexities of economic upgrading per se, such findings prove that while upgrading is an effort driven by the firm and its cohort of stakeholders, the effort is unlikely to succeed if the broader institutional and regulatory environment that the firms are embedded in is not conducive.Accepted versio

The Internationalisation of Mainland Chinese Firms into Malaysia: From Obligated Embeddedness to Active Embeddedness

This paper examines the rationale by which mainland Chinese firms choose their coalition partners in their Malaysian ventures. I explore how, under certain political economic conditions, such cross-border investment and corporate tie-ups can be shaped to meet the Malaysian state’s objectives. I argue that the Malaysian state has enjoyed success in the construction sector by nurturing cooperation between its carefully groomed government-linked companies and mainland Chinese firms. Government-linked companies are useful coalition partners for the mainland Chinese firms because of the crucial role the state plays in creating a largely non-competitive industry that favours government-linked companies. Outside of the construction sector, however, the state has enjoyed markedly less success in fostering cooperation between the mainland Chinese firms and the government-linked companies. Consequently, the mainland Chinese firms possess more bargaining power vis-à-vis the state when they invest in these sectors, enjoying considerable autonomy in the selection of their coalition partners.Published versio

China’s Investments in Malaysia: Choosing the ‘Right’ Partners

This paper examines China’s outward foreign direct investment into Malaysia by analysing the major coalition partners of mainland Chinese firms that have invested into the country, a relatively underexplored topic. Based on personal interviews with parties familiar with the investment of mainland Chinese firms in Malaysia as well as published reports, this paper argues that a large portion of the mainland Chinese firms have cooperated with the governmentlinked companies (GLCs) in their cross-border investments, while a smaller percentage have cooperated with the ethnic Chinese firms, and other entities i.e. neither the GLCs nor the ethnic Chinese firms. The mainland Chinese firms’ strong preference of the GLCs is attributed to the dominance of the GLCs in the Malaysian economy, a direct result of the country’s ethnocentric economic redistribution model. However, the preference of mainland Chinese firms for the GLCs, ethnic Chinese firms, and other entities is not uniform across the economic sectors. The preference for the GLCs decreases from the construction, to the manufacturing, and to the other services, agriculture, finance, and information and communication sectors. The preference for the ethnic Chinese firms and the other entities illustrates an opposite trend as it increases from the construction sector, to the manufacturing, and the other services, agriculture, finance, and information and communication sectors respectively. The mainland Chinese firms’ choice of coalition partners reflects the capitalist development and state-society relations of Malaysia, outcomes of the country’s decades-old political economic mantra of wealth redistribution along ethnic lines.Published versio

Firm Entry Modes and Chinese Business Networks: Malaysian Investments in Vietnam

This paper examines the Malaysian Chinese firms that have expanded into Vietnam. Based on research and qualitative personal interviews with Malaysian Chinese firms that have invested in Vietnam, the paper unpacks the entry modes that these firms have undertaken. It argues that the Malaysian Chinese firms prefer joint ventures in their Vietnamese businesses to wholly-owned subsidiaries and personal direct investments. This paper also argues that such investments are often embedded in social and intraethnic ties, which connect Malaysian Chinese firms with Vietnam's ethnic Chinese businessmen. To this end, these firms tend to rely on informal ties and nonmarket institutions in the form of the ethnic Chinese business networks. Nevertheless, the Malaysian Chinese firms are not averse to collaborating with nonethnic Chinese firms that enjoy a good relationship with the Vietnamese state. This observation is especially marked in the property and construction, and finance sectors.Accepted versio

The internationalisation of mainland Chinese firms into Malaysia: from obligated embeddedness to active embeddedness

"This paper examines the rationale by which mainland Chinese firms choose their coalition partners in their Malaysian ventures. I explore how, under certain political economic conditions, such cross-border investment and corporate tie-ups can be shaped to meet the Malaysian state's objectives. I argue that the Malaysian state has enjoyed success in the construction sector by nurturing cooperation between its carefully groomed government-linked companies and mainland Chinese firms. Government-linked companies are useful coalition partners for the mainland Chinese firms because of the crucial role the state plays in creating a largely non-competitive industry that favours government-linked companies. Outside of the construction sector, however, the state has enjoyed markedly less success in fostering cooperation between the mainland Chinese firms and the government-linked companies. Consequently, the mainland Chinese firms possess more bargaining power vis-à-vis the state when they invest in these sectors, enjoying considerable autonomy in the selection of their coalition partners." (author's abstract

Public policy with Vietnamese characteristics: the case of the motorcycle industry

This paper analyses Vietnam’s motorcycle industry, one of the industries earmarked for economic reform since the late 1980s. The paper argues that the Vietnamese state has nurtured its previously derelict motorcycle industry to one that is internationally competitive through the implementation of market-distorting policy measures as well as the selective co-optation of international capital. Nevertheless, there is a limit to Vietnam’s policy manoeuvring amidst strong pressure from the international agencies and transnational corporations to liberalize the industry. Consequently, indigenous capability remains modest although some of the domestic firms are displaying signs of mastering the technical know-how introduced from abroad.Accepted versio

The Economic Geographies of Aquaculture

25 p.Fish protein is projected to make up increasing proportions of our protein intake in the years to come with increasing supply coming from aquaculture. Despite its fast increasing economic importance, there is a relative paucity of research on aquaculture from the standpoint of economic geography. This paper contributes to this literature by first reviewing the socio-economics of certification of fish and the role of aquaculture in economic development – two of the more pervasive research strands in aquaculture. Following that, we show how global commodity chain perspectives can augment geographical research on aquaculture. We argue that despite some shortcomings, the global commodity chain approach is a viable approach to examine the aquaculture industry because of its ability to elucidate the uneven and contested nature of commodity and other resource flows between the production, distribution, and consumption nodes and its potential to analyze the impacts of the wider regulatory and institutional environment on the industry.Accepted Versio