3 essays on industrial relations in China

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.This dissertation includes three essays. I argue in the first essay that given the weak union tradition there, alternative organizational bases for workers' mobilization and solidarity in local contexts have become an important factor for improving labor standards. Using a mixed method, including 54 in-depth interviews and a unique survey of 105 firms and 1,270 workers, this article specifies two findings: 1) despite the ever-increasing top-down regulatory efforts by the state and multinational corporations (MNCs), exploitative labor relations still exist as approximately ten percent of surveyed workers reported the experiences of labor abuses; and 2) native-place networks among migrant workers are a primary source of solidarity and have been crucial to preventing labor abuses; however, an overreliance on native-place networks reduces their salaries, suggesting an inverted U-shaped relationship between solidarity and economic opportunities. The second essay traces the origin of the flexible and densely connected production networks among Taiwanese manufacturers to the 1970s when they entered the global apparel and footwear production. This type of coordinated production network was transplanted to southern China around 1990 and has since been well maintained there. In contrast, the bottom-up mobilization of domestic entrepreneurs in the same city began to explore the domestic market by establishing multi-layered franchisee networks to distribute their own branded apparel. Whose presence as a reference group has provided Taiwanese entrepreneurs constraints, incentives, and mindsets to pursue emerging opportunities in the domestic market. In reaction, Taiwanese entrepreneurs began to utilize another configuration of inter-firm organizations-the Taiwanese Business Association-to share the risk and cost of exploring the domestic market and to increase their bargaining power vis-h-vis local Chinese governments. In the final essay, content analysis of 7,000 articles published in two top Chinese-language social science journals (1985-2011) suggests a lack of a large academic field of industrial relations (IR) in China, despite its rising labor problems. In general, there are two sub-spheres of a broad IR field (Kaufman 1993): human resource management scholars have focused on white-collar employees' psychological well-being, individual performance, and team efficiency; sociologists have contributed to our understanding of manufacturing workers' economic, social, and political disadvantages. An integration of both perspectives is important for the development of an IR field in China, especially given the recent state effort to establish stand-alone academic units devoted to IR research.by Enying Zheng.Ph.D

Impact of Obesogenic Environments on Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption among Preschoolers: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Survey in Beijing

The excessive consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) has been proven to be critical for obesity among preschoolers. This study aimed to describe the SSB consumption rates among preschoolers in the Dongcheng District of Beijing, China, and to explore the association between obesogenic environmental determinants and consumption. We applied a stratified cluster sampling method and recruited 3057 primary caregivers of preschoolers in June 2019 to participate in the survey. The caregivers reported their children’s consumption rates of six categories of SSBs and their exposure rates to SSB-related obesogenic environments. The associations between them were tested using multivariate logistic regression models. The mean (SD) age of the children was 5.6 (0.6) years and nearly half (48.3%) were girls. About 84.5% of the children had consumed SSBs over the past three months, and sugar-sweetened milk beverages had the highest consumption rate. Higher exposure to advertisements for the corresponding SSB categories in children, higher frequency rates of consuming SSBs and of taking children to fast-food restaurants in caregivers, and lower frequency rates of reading the Nutrition Facts Panels by caregivers were associated with higher SSB consumption rates among children (p < 0.05 in all of the SSB categories investigated, except for the Nutrition Facts Panel reading behaviors for the sports and energy beverages). SSB consumption among preschoolers is of concern, and comprehensive policy actions and education are urgently needed

Types and Aspects of Front-of-Package Labeling Preferred by Parents: Insights for Policy Making in China

The WHO recommends front-of-package labeling (FOPL) to help parents make healthier food choices for their children. But which type of FOPL resonates with parents in China? We performed a cross-sectional study to investigate parental preferences for five widely used formats of FOPL. A multi-stage cluster sampling method was applied to selected parents of students in primary and secondary schools in six provinces and municipalities from July 2020 to March 2021. A close-ended questionnaire was used to collect demographic information, parents’ preferences for five FOPL in three dimensions, perceptions of the importance of nutrients labeled on FOPL, and prepackaged foods that need FOPL most. Chi-square tests were used to examine the characteristics among five groups. The results showed that multiple traffic lights (MTL) was preferred by parents, followed by warning labels. Parents thought the most needed nutrients to label were sugar, salt, and total fat. The top three prepackaged foods to label were “baked food”, “milk and dairy products” and “sugar-sweetened beverages”. Our findings indicate that nutrient-specific FOPL formats with interpretive aids were preferred by Chinese parents. These new findings can help inform the planning and implementation of FOPL in China and help Chinese parents make healthier food choices