IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gig/chaktu/v43y2014i1p103-138.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Place-based and Place-bound Realities: A Chinese Firm’s Embeddedness in Tanzania

Author

Listed:
  • Tanny Men

Abstract

The paper presents a single case study of how one Chinese firm operates in Dar es Salaam and how the firm’s embeddedness and unique managerial style in the local context affect local benefits for Tanzanian employees. The results demonstrate the need to fill a gap in the knowledge about Chinese economic activities in Africa, par-ticularly in relation to the cultural constructs present in manager-employee interactions. The findings paint a picture of a firm that intends to localize its business strategies and engage a local labour force, but similarly reveals the inherent cultural, behavioural and social norms of Chinese management, which may create organizational challenges and power differentials in the workplace.

Suggested Citation

  • Tanny Men, 2014. "Place-based and Place-bound Realities: A Chinese Firm’s Embeddedness in Tanzania," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 43(1), pages 103-138.
    • Handle: RePEc:gig:chaktu:v:43:y:2014:i:1:p:103-138
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/jcca/article/view/725
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Granovetter, 2005. "The Impact of Social Structure on Economic Outcomes," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 33-50, Winter.
    2. Unknown, 2005. "Forward," 2005 Conference: Slovenia in the EU - Challenges for Agriculture, Food Science and Rural Affairs, November 10-11, 2005, Moravske Toplice, Slovenia 183804, Slovenian Association of Agricultural Economists (DAES).
    3. repec:bla:devpol:v:28:y:2010:i:2:p:173-194 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Neil M. Coe & Peter Dicken & Martin Hess, 2008. "Global production networks: realizing the potential," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 271-295, May.
    5. Jing Gu, 2009. "China's Private Enterprises in Africa and the Implications for African Development," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 21(4), pages 570-587, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fei, Ding, 2020. "Variegated work regimes of Chinese investment in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    2. George Ofosu & David Sarpong, 2022. "The evolving perspectives on the Chinese labour regime in Africa," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(4), pages 1747-1766, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stefan Ouma, 2010. "Global Standards, Local Realities: Private Agrifood Governance and the Restructuring of the Kenyan Horticulture Industry," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 86(2), pages 197-222, April.
    2. Mike Morris & Leonhard Plank & Cornelia Staritz, 2016. "Regionalism, end markets and ownership matter: Shifting dynamics in the apparel export industry in Sub Saharan Africa," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(7), pages 1244-1265, July.
    3. Ernesto Noronha & Premilla D’Cruz & Muneeb Ul Lateef Banday, 2020. "Navigating Embeddedness: Experiences of Indian IT Suppliers and Employees in the Netherlands," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 95-113, June.
    4. McWilliam, Sarah E. & Kim, Jung Kwan & Mudambi, Ram & Nielsen, Bo Bernhard, 2020. "Global value chain governance: Intersections with international business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    5. Staritz, Cornelia, 2012. "Value chains for development? Potentials and limitations of global value chain approaches in donor interventions," Working Papers 31, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    6. Plank, Leonhard & Staritz, Cornelia, 2014. "Global competition, institutional context, and regional production networks: Up- and downgrading experiences in Romania's apparel industry," Working Papers 50, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    7. Noronha, Ernesto & D'Cruz, Premilla, 2020. "The Indian IT industry: A global production network perspective," IPE Working Papers 134/2020, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    8. Tröster, Bernhard, 2015. "Global commodity chains, financial markets, and local market structures: Price risks in the coffee sector in Ethiopia," Working Papers 56, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    9. DÖRRY Sabine, 2012. "Luxembourg's specialisation as a financial centre within the global value networks of investment funds," LISER Working Paper Series 2012-40, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    10. Yoruk, Deniz E., 2019. "Dynamics of firm-level upgrading and the role of learning in networks in emerging markets," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 341-369.
    11. Maureen Benson-Rea & Christina Stringer, 2015. "Small Firm Specialisation in Global Value Chains: Evidence from the Cut Flower Industry," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 14(1), pages 43-62, June.
    12. Fabinyi, Michael, 2016. "Producing for Chinese luxury seafood value chains: Different outcomes for producers in the Philippines and North America," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 184-190.
    13. Cédric Durand & David Flacher & Vincent Frigant, 2018. "Étudier les chaînes globales de valeur comme une forme d’organisation industrielle," Revue d'économie industrielle, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(3), pages 13-34.
    14. Dallas, Mark P., 2014. "Manufacturing Paradoxes: Foreign Ownership, Governance, and Value Chains in China’s Light Industries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 47-62.
    15. Chrystalla Kapetaniou & Soo Hee Lee, 2019. "Geographical proximity and open innovation of SMEs in Cyprus," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 261-276, January.
    16. Grumiller, Jan, 2019. "A strategic-relational approach to analyzing industrial policy regimes within global production networks: The Ethiopian Leather and Leather Products Sector," Working Papers 60, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    17. Thomas Vetter & Marianne Nylandsted Larsen & Thilde Bech Bruun, 2019. "Supermarket-Led Development and the Neglect of Traditional Food Value Chains: Reflections on Indonesia’s Agri-Food System Transformation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-18, January.
    18. Vincent Frigant, 2015. "Beyond The Business Case and Sustainable chain management: Why Do We Need to Build a Theory of Interfirm Social Responsability?," Post-Print hal-01426819, HAL.
    19. Rory Horner, 2022. "Global value chains, import orientation, and the state: South Africa’s pharmaceutical industry," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 68-87, March.
    20. Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta & Howcroft, Debra, 2013. "The Apple business model: Crowdsourcing mobile applications," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 280-289.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gig:chaktu:v:43:y:2014:i:1:p:103-138. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Karsten Giese or Heike Holbig (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dueiide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.