The political economy of global firms from India and China

Abstract

This article attempts to build a bridge between contemporary studies of global firms from emerging economies and existing theories in comparative political economy. It argues that given the primacy of the state as an economic actor in developing countries, the variety of capitalism literature could provide a theoretical foundation for firm-level analyses of emerging market multinationals. For example, the authors suggest that China and India may be moving towards a ‘hybrid market economy’. They also offer a typology of Indian and Chinese corporates to demonstrate an empirical approach to analysing domestic business–government relationships and the ways in which these firms are shaped by the peculiarities of their respective institutional setting. Finally, they identify some of the likely pitfalls of doing cross-national comparisons of emerging market multinationals, particularly with respect to the reliability of corporate data.

Keywords:

• China
• India
• varieties of capitalism
• multinationals
• comparative political economy

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Gizem Gürson and Alexandra Tudoroiu for providing invaluable research assistance. Previous versions of this manuscript were presented at research seminars and workshops at the National Council for Applied Economic Research, New Delhi, December 2005, the London School of Economics, February 2006, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, February 2006, the UK Department of Trade and Investment, June 2007, and at the annual conference of the Political Studies Association, April 2007. For comments on previous drafts of this paper, we would especially like to thank Andrea Goldstein, Seema Desai, Subhashish Gangopadhyay, Wang Haisu, Jean-François Huchet, Partha Mukhopadhyay, Joël Ruet, Alan Rugman, Kunal Sen, Laura Tyson and John Zysman.

Notes

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lawrence Sáez

*Dr Lawrence Sáez is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Comparative and International Politics, Department of Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). His research focuses on the political economy of sectoral reform in emerging markets, with a particular focus on India and China. He is the author of Banking Reform in India and China (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) and Federalism Without a Centre (Sage, 2002). He is also the co-editor of Coalition Politics and Hindu Nationalism (Routledge, 2005).

Crystal Chang

**Crystal Chang is a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on the political economy of China and security relationships in Asia. Email: [email protected]