About this book
A study of the development and acquisition of technology by a group of small- and medium-sized rural industries in the Sichuan province, China. The enterprises are mainly collective ones, but they are compared with other ownership groups, such as private and state enterprises. Careful analysis, using time series data and a survey sample of rural collective industries in two counties in China, reveals that the Chinese technology system is ineffective in reaching all private and public ownership groups, especially the rural collective enterprises, and does not promote cooperation and assistance. This book should be of interest to economists, developmentalists, NGOs, social scientists and private and public consultants within the developmental field.
Contents
Part 1 Background, theoretical and methodological considerations: development and industrialization - development and the economics of growth, strategies of industrialization, spatial development - the call for an integrated approach, rural and small-scale industries; industrialization in China - an introduction to the field study - some historical notes, industrialization and the external sector, the state technology system, rural industries and technological development; development and acquisition of technology - two lines of thought, capability building and innovation, defining technology, the entire complex of human skills within the firm, inter-enterprise cooperation, enterprises, institutions and the government, development and acquisition of technology; methodological considerations - research location, research population, data gathering, representation and limitation. Part 2 The survey: rural industry in Santai and Qianwei -an analysis of secondary longitudinal data - raising local skills non-agricultural employment, the importance of rural manufacturing in rural industry, the importance of rural collectives, the size structure of enterprises, development of technology, diversity within the group of collectives; the sample - firm size and technology - an analysis of primary longitudinal data - the size structure of the sample, development of technology in the sample, ownership, size and technology in the sample, sectors - firm size and technology; establishment and finance -determinants of technology - the establishment of enterprises, financial sources, enterprises expenditure, ownership, finance and technology; the technological environment of the firm - on market and institutional linkages - input linkages, output linkages, institutional linkages, statistical analyses; acquisition of technology within the firm - on skills, equipment, incentive and problem solving - human-embodied technology, equipment-embodied technology, organization-embodied technology, statistical analyses; summary and concluding remarks. Part 3 Appendices: appendices to chapters 7, 8 and 9; questionnaire.
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