| Abstrakt: |
Much research in sociology has been to highlight the complexity and diversity of networks, but many studies of organizational social networks ignore this feature and relay instead on the one-dimensional characterization. In this research, the author focuses on the complexity of network, especially the importance of political factor. Using the Fortune 500 firms in China as the case, the author tried to argue that there is an intertwined network between large firms and China's politics. First, the author tried to describe the type of Chinese's firm network. Is that a small-world one that fits traditional social network theory? Or is that a hybrid one that is similar to India? Second, the data shows that the entrepreneurs' network contains the overlapping of directors between firms, and a significant amount of directors have position in both the firm and central/local governments. The author tried to interpret this as the intertwined network between capital and politics due to the special cultural context of Chinese society. Traditionally, Chinese society has been regarded as a society that people are closely tied to each other via "quan xi", the relationship between people. If someone has more quan xi with others, the individual is more likely to get extra benefits in terms of political problems and economic benefits. From the data and the network generated from this research, the author proved that most large firms have "quan xi" in the governments and this may be the reason that they can success in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
