As China joins the World Trade Organization, the author questions whether China’s large firms will be able to compete on the global level playing field. Over the past two decades, Chinese large enterprises have undertaken extensive evolutionary change but, at the same time, the world’s...

This paper looks closely at a key hypothesis of Stephen Hymer, namely that a small number of giant corporations would soon dominate each sector of the global economy. The article shows that, although the nature of the large corporation has changed profoundly, Hymer's basic insight has proven...

In the epoch of global business revolution, the world's leading firms have undergone a revolutionary transformation. Firms from developing countries are disadvantaged to compete on the global level playing field of international big business. This paper investigates the competitiveness of...

Since the late 1970s, China has enjoyed one of the most remarkable periods of economic growth ever seen. However, the country faces deep economic, ecological, political and social challenges. It is at the crossroads. In order to attempt to resolve the challenges, which path will China take? Will...

China's fast economic growth after 1978 provided opportunities for existing large plants to grow into more complex, big businesses, stimulated especially by booming demand for their `upstream' products, such as steel, heavy machinery and petrochemicals. However, large firms emerged also from...

The main body of the paper analyses the reasons and the nature of Corporation's remarkable growth during the economic reform years since the late 1970s in China.