Encountering Chinese Networks: Western, Japanese, and Chinese Corporations in China, 1880-1937

Big businesses have faced a persistent dilemma in China since the nineteenth century: how to retain control over corporate hierarchies while adapting to local social networks. Sherman Cochran, in the first study to compare Western, Japanese, and Chinese businesses in Chinese history, shows how various businesses have struggled with this issue as they have adjusted to dramatic changes in Chinese society, politics, and foreign affairs.

Cochran devotes a chapter each to six of the biggest busi...