Can China Lead?: Reaching the Limits of Power and Growth

by Regina M. Abrami, William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan

Overview

It’s time to rethink the way we think about China.

In this thought-provoking book, noted China experts from Harvard Business School and the Wharton School assert that while China has experienced remarkable economic growth in recent decades (nearly 10 percent for more than thirty years), it now faces major challenges—tests that could shift the country’s political and economic trajectory.

A lack of accountability, transparency, and ease of operating in China—combined with growing evidence of high-level corruption—has made domestic and foreign businesspeople increasingly wary of the “China model.” These issues have deep roots in Chinese history and the country’s political system.

Regina M. Abrami of the Wharton School and William C. Kirby and F. Warren McFarlan of Harvard Business School contend that the country’s dynamic private sector could be a source of sustainable growth, but it is constrained by political favoritism toward state-owned corporations. Disruptive innovation, research, and development are limited by concerns about intellectual property protection. Most significant of all is the question of China’s political future: does a system that has overseen dramatic transformations in recent years now have the capacity to transform itself?

Based on a new and popular course taught by the authors at Harvard Business School, this book draws on more than thirty Harvard Business School case studies on Chinese and foreign companies doing business in the region, including Sealed Air, China Merchants Bank, China Mobile, Wanxiang Group, Microsoft, UFIDA, and others.

Can China Lead? asserts that China is at an inflection point that cannot be ignored. An understanding of the forces that continue to shape its business landscape is crucial to establishing—and maintaining—a successful enterprise in China.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781422144152
Publisher:	Harvard Business Review Press
Publication date:	02/18/2014
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Regina M. Abrami is a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School (Universityof Pennsylvania), Director of the Global Program at the Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies, and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science. Prior to this, she was a member of the Harvard Business School faculty for eleven years, and chair of its inaugural international immersion program.

William C. Kirby is the Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University. He is Chairman of the Harvard China Fund. He has served as Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard. He is an honorary professor at Peking University, Nanjing University, Chongqing University, Zhejiang University, East China Normal University, Fudan University, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and National Chengchi University.

F. Warren McFarlan is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School, as well as the Albert H. Gordon Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus. He is concurrently a guest professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management and codirector of the school’s China Business Case Center.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Recasting China's Economic Miracle ix

1 The Myths and Making of Modern China 1

2 Party, Inc. 27

3 The Engineering State 53

4 Planning Innovation? 79

5 Achieving Commercial Success in China 107

6 Global China 137

7 China 2034 167

Appendix A Selected Macroeconomic Data on China 189

Appendix B Cases Referenced in Can China Lead? 193

Notes 215

Bibliography 231

Index 245

About the Authors 255

Editorial Reviews

ADVANCE PRAISE for Can China Lead?:

William V. Hickey, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sealed Air Corporation—
“Can China Lead? is a thoughtful and well-written perspective on the development of modern China, its emergence as an economic power, and its future outlook. This is a must-read for anyone doing business in China today and anyone interested in the leadership challenges that China will face going forward.”

Rodney Chase, former Deputy Group Chief Executive and Managing Director, BP plc—
“These Harvard and Wharton luminaries have written a challenging and disturbing assessment of modern-day China while brilliantly illuminating the country’s traumatic twentieth-century journey. While the authors express real doubts about China’s readiness to embrace a world leadership role anytime soon, this book will help all of us understand China just a little better.”

Karen Mills, former Administrator, US Small Business Administration—
“Entrepreneurship may be America’s ‘secret sauce,’ but it’s an essential part of China’s heritage as well. From a deep historical understanding, Can China Lead? asks what will happen when the Chinese and American entrepreneurial economies face off in a global marketplace.”

George Yeo, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Singapore—
“The authors doubt that China can lead the world, admitting that China may not have any such ambition in the first place. Analyzing the country’s deep contradictions, this book will teach you how business is done in China—and it does so brilliantly.”

Tom Lee, Hughes M. Blake Professor of Management, Foster School of Business, Universityof Washington; former President, Academy of Management—
“One of the best books on China that I’ve read in a very long time.”

From the Publisher