With two colleagues I have just finished almost two weeks of research interviews in China. The research took us to Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen (flying in and out of Shanghai).

Our project looks specifically at technology firms and predominantly those we might call new generation Chinese firms. New generation firms are style typically SMEs, though some have grown reasonably large, are privately owned and are most easily defined by what they are not (i.e., not state-owned enterprises (SOEs), not cooperatives or town and village enterprises (TVEs), not family firms, not foreign firms or joint ventures).

We were able to interview more than a dozen firms (a reasonable achievement given that they were spread over three cities and a very late announced three day public holiday got in the way). The firms included an animation business, an IT outsourcing firm, suppliers of telecommunications equipment, a mobile and a CRM software firm, a manufacturer of domestic appliances.

The interviews were intellectually invigorating has they brought together the three of us with our overlapping interests in Chinese business, IT industry and the institutional issues involved in understanding the working of capitalism.

Having spent less than 24 hours back in the UK, I’m writing this on the plane to the US where we will present a first run at the results at a conference.

I was in Brussels for a workshop earlier this week. The workshop was about Asian management, with most of the papers having some China theme. It was great and has helped to reinvigorate my research interest. One of the nicest aspects was that there was typically about 30 mins after each presentation to discuss the material: much better than the typical conference.

I managed to sneak across a day or two earlier to see the city (it’s been a long time since my last visit). The centre of Brussels seems more like a building cite at times than a capital and I find it rather endearing that the European capital is quaint (in its centre at least) rather than grand the way Washington DC or Beijing are grand.

As you will see above, I have been playing around with low level and low light photographs, trying to capture perspectives that we don’t usually take in ourselves.

Enough from me, its back to writing a paper.

The last two weeks have been great.

I took at trip to Greece for a friends’ wedding and managed to catch up with family and friends. The weather, food, beer and festivities were all fantastic.

The weekend just passed was a trip to Oxford for the alumni weekend and the first event of my soon to be merged college. It was great to see some old faces — and all of them looking healthy and happy. One of the nicest parts of this was meeting some new people (postgrads and fellows at Green) and also being remembered at my own college when I rolled up. Its really rather easy to forget how touching such things are until they happen.

Its now the beginning and term and things have got very, very busy.

Trundling on the same as last year would be the easy option, but when has that ever been an option for me?

New things on the horizon this year include:

• My first attempt at using podcasts as part of teaching. I think I have the technology largely sorted, but this will probably turn out to be the easy part. I have also put a lot of careful thought into how this might work. In particular, I want the podcasts to augment rather than replace existing methods of communicating with students. This of course breaks with tradition, so there are embedded practice issues (for students) that I have to nudge. I’ll report on this as I see how it works (or not).
• Getting back into the swing of research. There has been something of a hiatus for me in terms of traditional academic research. I have now submitted two workshop papers and am about to submit a conference paper to get back into the swing of things. My hope is to consolidate and use as a catalyst all of the exciting things I’ve done over the last couple of years (particularly involving China).
• I have plans to extend and vary again the Overseas Project trip and introduce some new types of assessment. Nothing major, but probably much more work for me than the students. The same issues emerge here as with the podcasting: how to engage with new media, technology and practices without diminishing the best of traditional education.
• Reengaging with some hobbies — all work and no play is not healthy, so I want to spend less time in front of the computer and more time out and about working on my photography — and if the timing is suitable take a documentary making course.

This all seems like a rather heady agenda. However, as much as being mid-career and almost middle aged seems an almost certain recipe for having the ambition kicked out of one, ‘they,’ whoever they are, haven’t got to me yet.

I spent today tying to put some theoretical work in the context of my observations about economic and political change in East Asia over the last 150 years. In particular, I’ve been working through my reading and thinking about network society (see an earlier post), social network analysis, economic sociology and structuration theory. My hope is to develop a scalable network centric view of the world that can then be used to guide the empirical description of the changes in China that interest me.

I believe that all readings of the world and driven by our preconceptions (however they way be dressed up) so it is important to enunciate them carefully at the outset of any empirical work. My interest in working on the theory is to enable me to, with the one consistent lens, view a fuller range of related phenomena.

I have decided that we can broadly conceive of the world through a network topology. At times, though, this network may look linear and hierarchical, and the more complex structures mostly latent. At other times, in more fluid societies, the network will be much less linear and hierarchical. Economic sociology and social network analysis can help us identify the nature and strength of links between nodes in the network.

Using an understanding of the strength of ties we can see how the network is structurated to develop rigidities. Pressures from outside the network, or changes in the strength of ties between key nodes can lead to changes in the structure of the network.

As I noted above, this kind of approach is potentially scalable. So, for example, the same theory and method could be applied to examining the change in economic and social relations between groups of university friends moving into the workforce or the shifting alliances of hi-tech firms seeking to dominate new markets.

I’m working on this to apply to a couple of pieces of continuing research, examini changes in the structure of Chinese society (in particular changing social class hierarchies and changing industry structures).

Yesterday afternoon, after arriving and settling in my hotel, I wandered the central city area and caught up on some necessary shopping — a rugby top because it is cooler here than I expected and a small card wallet to replace the one I lost in Shanghai, the cards will have to wait until I return to the UK.

I did my shopping in some of the famous Japanese department stores. The service was something to admire. It reminded me why Japan is an essential visit for anyone studying marketing, and retail in particular.

I tried my luck for dinner at a nice looking restaurant and tried my luck with a set meal and some sake. All went very well despite the lack of language. It seems my buddy’s convention that it is hard to find a bad meal in Japan may be true. The highlight was some sushi roll served a little warm with some warm, sweetish sauce.

The central city area is rather nice, a grid of small streets bounded by much bigger main ones. The small streets are quite narrow and pleasantly busy.

Today was spent mostly waking in the old town, on the edge of the modern central city and one of the only traditional city centres left untouched by second world war bombing.

The district is full of small, mostly wooden houses. People still live in some of there, others are restaurants. I also wandered around the grounds of a lovely hillside park overlooking the city and a temple. The temples have an important history here, being bases for fighting forces throughout the city’s long history.

Wandering through one narrow landway, I chanced upon a sudden scuffle of non-professional photographers (sorry, not sure how to spell the ‘a’ word. I stood back to see what the little crowd was interested in. It turned out to be a procession of female traditional Japanese opera singers in their full makeup and clothing. They entered the rear of a little traditional theatre. The photographers seem to have been waiting, and gave the impression of being quite dedicated fans. One, given his age, enthusiasm and old camera may have been coming each day to this spot for decades.

I also spent some time wandering the shops. I found two specialist second hand camera stores. Japan seems to have quite a vibrant second hand market for expensive but somewhat fashionable goods (as does Singapore). Cameras, watches, pens, etc. I’ve not got the energy to explore why this might be, enough to say its quite intriguing, and an education to see an almost museum quality collection of cameras.

More notable are the artisans’ stores, selling various fine goods developed by the famous merchants and tradesmen of the city over centuries. There include beautiful parasolls and umbrellas, some textiles and fine sweets (at least that I have read about and discovered so far). Given the refined nature of some of the goods I examined (and the price), I was not surprised to learn that, some artisans’ families have been in their field for upto 20 generations.

I needed to leave China because my visa is only valid for 90 on each entry. So, I packed some reading and am visiting a good friend in Japan for a couple of days.

As I write this, I have only been here an hour or so, I’m sitting in a cafe waiting to meet my buddy when he finishes work. Just this short time, and the memories it prompts of my last visit some years ago (before my first visit to China), has already added some needed perspective on my time in China. And, for important political reasons, this is a good time to visit.

Japan provides something of a template for Asian economic and political development. The Meiji Restoration created the basis for a modern (in western terms, modernist) Asian society and this through education exchange and government advisors influenced Chinese policy in the late 19th and early 20th century. Japan’s victory over the Russian navy demonstrated to the Chinese that Asia need not play second military fiddle to the west.

Of course, this benign influence changed its character during Japan’s imperialist period, and Sino-Japanese political relations still struggle to overcome this history.

My visit runs in parallel with that of President Hu, visiting to, I hope, try and give political relations between the country some of the same warmth and vigour that is evident in the economic sphere.

Economic development in both countries has been characterised by state led development, with some industries selected as champions, moving to more market based policies. Both countries have been reluctant players on the world political stage. Both have recent histories with which they have not really come to terms. Both seen to have a rather ambivalent relationship with the USA, though with quite different histories.

In addition to these rather broad political and historical issues, I will get to observe Japanese middle class economy, identity and consumption, albeit rather casually. Still, even though these are two quite distinct civilisations, visiting Japan has already helped to render alien some of the things about China that I had come to take for granted.

Japan, for example, clearly has a capacity to plan and implement great projects in a way that China, despite a very impressive recent part, is still working to develop. Japan has, not unrelatedly, a huge human and physical capital stock that it deploys in industry, both large and small.

While it is clearly useful to be here and jolted from some of my acceptance of things in China, an acceptance that, of course, limits the capacity for thoughtful engagement, there are limits to how much I should take away from this visit (my books aside).

I should, to help with this issue of comparative perspective of culture and economy, visit Taiwan, where the economic and political circumstances are more like Japan than mainland China, but there is a shared civilisation.

Commercial tourism in China as an industry is still in its infancy. It is an industry, though, that has much potential and is being actively developed by Chinese national, provincial and local governments.

There is much worth seeing for both domestic and international tourists. China has a diverse landscape, with a long coastline, deserts and mountains. An equally rich and diverse range of minority cultures makes travelling in China provides a linguistic, visual, artistic and gastronomic adventure. China’s long and often troubled history and colourful mythology provides the industry with the potential to create sites of multi dimensional (intellectual and emotional, as well as visual, culinary, etc) engagement.

However, currently, extracting this richness can be a challenge without thorough preparation. Even then, a native speaking friend or guide is needed to fill in the blanks left by local traditions, lack of signs, etc.

For international tourists, the challenge for Chinese tourist authorities and businesses is how to create a sense of manageable authenticity: to profit from enabling foreigners to experience the richness of China without condemning them to crass organised tours. This challenge is not an easy one to meet, because it must be balanced with the, perhaps different, needs and wants of domestic tourist.

I have seen examples of the struggle to balance there competing objectives For example, at the Terracotta Army site in Xi’an, inside the compound men pulled scale replicas wrapped in newspaper from inside their shirts offering them for sale. Immediately outside the compound main exit the tourist gift shops were flanked by a wall bedecked with an enormous advertisement for laundry detergent. While the site probably deserves its label as the eighth wonder of the world, some more gravitas would seems appropriate.

In a similar vein, there is a strong tradition here of asking, perhaps of result of a long history of changing circumstances and limited documentation of policies and procedures. However, this does not translate well for international tourists, who are either wanting to be both more independent and less faced with ambiguity and/or lack the capacity to ask. Frequently, signs and machine translated and it is a struggle to understand them. This is a great pity in a country that produces excellent foreign language graduates at the international studies universities.

These observations are not, of course, reflections of any ill will. The Chinese are justly proud of much of their country’s history, culture and landscape. But, all of us struggle to understand those who are embedded in different traditions and have developed different expectations. Tourism is a way to help overcome this, to negotiate a shared understanding. International tourism in China, and, I dare to guess international tourism for Chinese, is just beginning this negotiation (much as the world struggled to work out how to accommodate Japanese tourism some year ago). Parts of Lijiang and the surrounding villages demonstrate that this can be done in ways that are sensitive to local traditions, and the need to keep then alive both for greater humanitarian and economic ends.

Lurking in these observations is germinating a research idea, and with practical application. Given that the Chinese governments (national, provincial, local) are trying to develop both domestic and international tourism. It strikes me that there is a lot of opportunity for developing (and diffusing) better understanding of comparative conceptualisations of travel, as applied to international and domestic tourism in China. Such research would clearly have a strong empirical aspect, documenting the, probably changing, rational and expectations of tourists and potential in China.

Good academic research should not just be empirical (consultants can be left to do that alone). Rather, good academic research needs to critically engage with the underlying theories and methods that frame empirical work. An examination of existing ways of categorising tourist would be needed. Similarly, cross cultural research is always good at providing data to challenge existing ways of theorising interaction with the world.

There is also room for some directed research and knowledge transfer. For example, UK cultural sites have been good at creating narratives around their artifacts and using that narrative to create more powerful (and revenue generating) engagement. Perhaps some form of knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) could be deployed. During my travels I couldn’t noticing that British tourists in China seem rather smaller proportion than the country’s wealth, population and propensity to travel would suggest. Perhaps some form of KTP would help UK tourists understand better this exciting and important country.

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Posted by email from my mobile phone.

Yesterday we arrived in Lijiang. From my twitters, you’ll see that it is a very scenic place, like Kunming, sitting on a mountain plateau. Unlike Kunming, the mountains are visible all around.

The main part of the commercial city proper seems quite small, having, even, a dusty country town feel to it. Very low rise, with only very few buildings over 4 or 5 stories, perhaps to keep the view.

The central avenue is three lanes either way, lines with buildings and terminating, not in some suburban sprawl, but in a snow capped mountain.

Our hotel, a sprawling complex of very nice villas, is on the outskirts of town, overlooked by the biggest of the nearby mountains. It was amazing to walk back from breakfast and see it towering over me.

Interestingly, many woman workers visible, diving taxis, working on roadwork crews and on building sites at the hotel. I have no idea why this is the case, perhaps the men have moved to larger cities for other work. Perhaps my observations to slight and not sufficient to judge.

The key tourist attraction is the old town, which, rather than being demolished has become what seems to be the city’s key industry. Very large by old town standards (we wandered for 6 hours), it consists of narrow streets and streams, lined with restaurants, stores selling traditional local wares and tourist tat.

The restaurants and shops are housed in stone and tile buildings with seemingly typical oriental ornaments. They wind in ways suggestive of some Greek islands (say, Hydra or Mykinos).

The town seems part cultural heritage site and part ethnic minority theme park. While the atmosphere was great, mildly festive even, I also thought I was playing part in some strange play, turning a local culture into a performance. Whereas once the local crafts would have been made for use by the maker and barter, they are now sold to tourists. Dances once performed for pleasure now performed for the pleasure of paying customers. People like me, of course, are complicit, however discretely we attempt to photograph.

While this reflection does leave something of a wary regret, I think the colour and atmosphere override it. Hopefully, this balance can be maintained and the old town can remain, as it seems so far, an exemplar of Chinese tourism management.

On Tuesday and colleague and I visited a local Chinese manufacturer, an OEM of domestic appliances. We had a longish discussion about price competition and the struggle to improve margins through product differentiation.

Firms in Zhejiang compete on price in highly competitive commodity markets. Price competition limits profits. No financial capital is accumulated to invest in research and development, marketing research or other foundations for product differentiation. Without these, higher value exports are impossible. This sounds like Mark Elvin’s low
level equilibrium trap all over again.

The story is a familiar one; one that I have heard from other Chinese SMEs, from business and investment analysts and from some of the public commentators on globalism.

To overcome this two things need to happen together. First, firms need to develop cultures of innovation that empower mid-level managers and free time for senior managers to guide innovation. Second, marketing and marketing research skills need to be developed to enable OEMs to break their reliance on foreign designs. These two things need to happen together, one is useless without the other. Of course, both of these require firms to draw down on capital, which, given the small profit margins, they might not be able to accumulate.

In addition, the transformation of firms from product-, manufacturing- and price-oriented to customer-, service- and value-oriented cannot happen in a vacuum. This needs a pool of managers and staff to draw on, cross industry fertalisation, universities and consultancies with appropriate skills and competitors and supplers striving to make the same transformation, understanding investors and so on.

Without a supporting culture and resources for innovation, surplus capital tends to be applied to property and stock market speculation rather than industry development.

In our discussion with the owner, we made an interesting distinction between SMEs in Zhejiang and those in Germany and Northern Italy, where small firms can be highly innovative (albeit in different ways). There seems in China to be a belief that higher level industial activity requires enormous scale, which the European firms disprove but which is probably true at miniscule profit margins.

A number of things might help Zhejiang SMEs become more like their European competitors.

First, the Chinese central and provincial governments are working to build intellectual and physical capital on key industries. This should help overcome some of the capital issues, though only in key industries and only to a limited extent. Price sensitive domestic and foreign customers and a rising currency will counter this to some extent.

Second, there is a committment to develop the cultural industies, which can act as a social and cultural support for a creative, innovative business environment.

Third, education is being developed and experiments with new programmes and institutions are evident (such as University of Nottingham Ningbo, China). What is probably important here is the diminshment of homogeneous university programmmes rather than the type of programme per se (i.e., its the potential for cross fertalisation that matters most).

It could be that it will take a generation for these factors to have an effect. It could just take a few successful examples. It will be interesting to watch.

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Posted from my iPod and written on a train, please forgive typos!

I’ve been struggling with work email these last two weeks.

There seems some general fault in the link between China and the UK university network which makes access difficult if not impossible sometimes.

In addition, my fancy Nokia has died so, even if the network was up, I don’t really have a suitable device with an email client. A 3G iPhone will be on the shopping list once they and the next OS undate are released.

Email replies should be back to normal next week, when I’m back to Ningbo.