From a ‘Barren Rock’ to the Financial Hub of East Asia: Hong Kong's Economic Transformation in the Coordinating Perspective

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Notes

 1. The Hong Kong government information website was visited on 28 April 2003: http://www.info.gov.hk/censtatd/eng/hkstat/fas/nat_account/gdp/gdp1_text.htm

 2. For differentiation between adaptive and Schumpeterian entrepreneurs, see Yu (1997: 25).

 3. Schooling provides secondary socialization. This explains why a firm tends to recruit staff from the alumni.

 4. The term ‘properly maintained’ means that firms continue to invest in their strategic assets to generate rents.

 5. Therefore, the Mercantilist Age, postwar Japan and the Asian NIEs such as Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore serve to illustrate the coordinating role of the government.

 6. For a full elaboration of the coordinating role of the government, see Yu (2000).

 7. For a detailed account of the economic and political setting of Hong Kong, see Ho (1992: 1–43); Chau (1993: 1–19) and Yu (1997: 50–65).

 8. The material for case studies in this paper was obtained from two sources, namely published documents (for example, company handbooks or commercial directories), and direct in-depth interviews when the author was affiliated to the Centre of Asian Studies (University of Hong Kong) as a visiting scholar from 1 February to 30 August 1994. The selection of the firms was guided by a prior understanding of the companies' backgrounds obtained from published sources such as company directories and handbooks. The selected firms were all local Chinese firms and had been established for at least five years. Each case study involved an interview with the founder(s), (sometimes together with assistants), and visits to the workshops (in most cases). Subsequent communications with the owners, their assistants or marketing managers were to clarify some points relating to the company's strategies or to request more information.

 9. For an account of such international coordination by a Hong Kong company, see Berger and Lester (1997: 39–41).

10. For a detailed discussion of the role of OEM in the East Asian economic development, see Hobday (1995).

11. Shared behavioural norms are among the industry capabilities which may yield rents (see Foss and Eriksen, 1995: 45).

12. The term was coined by Hughes (1968).

13. Great Britain's merchant, James Matheson, claimed that ‘If the lion's paw is to be put down on any part of the south side of China, let it be Hong Kong; let the lion declare it to be under his guarantee a free port, and in ten years it will be the most considerable mart east of the Cape.’ (Chan, 1991: 21).

14. Fiscal deficits occurred in the years 1959–60; 1974–5; 1982–3; 1983–4; 1995–6 and 1998–9.

15. Ho (2001) criticizes this policy for leading to the recent fiscal crisis.