Divergent Capitalisms: The Social Structuring and Change of Business Systems - Hardcover

Whitley, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198293968 ISBN 13: 9780198293965

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 1999

Synopsis

This book presents the comparative business systems framework for describing and explaining the major differences in economic organization between market economies in the late-twentieth century. This framework identifies the critical variations in coordination and control systems across forms of industrial capitalism, and shows how these are connected to major differences in their institutional contexts. Six major types of business system are identified and linked to different institutional arrangements. Significant differences in post-war East Asian business systems and the ways in which these are changing in the 1990s are analysed within this framework, which is also extended to compare the path-dependent nature of the new capitalisms emerging in Eastern Europe.

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Review

for those interested in the workings of the interconnected world and notions of globalisation, this book provides a valuable perspective on the parallel emergence of diverse forms of economic organisation. (Times Higher Education Supplement, 16/11/01)

The outstanding feature of Richard Whitley's book is its attempt to take a systemic view of the complex process through which distinctive patterns of economic organisation emerge. (Times Higher Education Supplement, 16/11/01)

Richard Whitley's book makes a important contribution to (this) debate ... This new book ... not only brings together the ideas expounded in earlier publications in a new way but also significantly expands and deepens the theoretical framework. (Christel Lane; Work, Employment and Society, Vol 14, No 4, 2000)

The book provides a very useful intellectual toolkit for comparative analysis of varieties of capitalism and their interaction with an as yet underdeveloped global capitalist system. It not only reliably documents the diversity of institutional and organisational forms found in contemporary capitalist societies but also enriches our understanding of both continuity and change in such arrangements in a wide range of advanced and newly industrialising countries across the globe. (Christel Lane; Work, Employment and Society, Vol 14, No4, 2000)

postgraduate students and academics will not only read it with interest but frequently return to it for theoretical guidance and empirical reference (Christel Lane, Work, Employment & Society, Vol 14/3, 2000)

the reader is helped by frequent presentation of key features of arguments in useful tables, as well as by the constant illustration of theoretical points with empirical examples. Moreover, the effort invested in following the arguments is well rewarded. The book provides a very useful intellectual toolkit for comparative analysis of varieties of capitalism and their interaction with an as yet underdeveloped global capitalist system. It not only reliably documents the diversity of institutional and organisational forms found in contemporary capitalist societies but also enriches our understanding of both continuity and change in such arrangements in a wide range of advanced and new industrialising countries across the globe. (Christel Lane, Work, Employment & Society, Vol 14/3, 2000)

Whitley's conclusions ... although often counter-intuitive, are by and large very convincing as they are based on careful logical argument, backed up by a wealth of empirical detail. (Christel Lane, Work, Employment & Society, Vol 14/4, 2000)

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Richard Whitley's book makes an important contribution to [this] debate. (Christel Lane, Work, Employment & Society, Vol 14/4, 2000)

Synopsis

The late twentieth century has witnessed the establishment of new forms of capitalism in East Asia as well as new market economies in Eastern Europe. Despite the growth of international investment and capital flows, these distinctive business systems remain different from each other and from those already developed in Europe and the Americas. This continued diversity of capitalism results from, and is reproduced by, significant differences in societal institutions and agencies such as the state, capital and labour markets, and dominant beliefs about trust, loyalty, and authority. This book presents the comparative business systems framework for describing and explaining the major differences in economic organization between market economies in the late twentieth century. This framework identifies the critical variations in coordination and control systems across forms of industrial capitalism, and shows how these are connected to major differences in their institutional contexts. Six major types of business system are identified and linked to different institutional arrangements.

Significant differences in post-war East Asian business systems and the ways in which these are changing in the 1990s are analysed within this framework, which is also extended to compare the path-dependent nature of the new capitalisms emerging in Eastern Europe.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0198293968
• ISBN 13: 9780198293965
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 312