The growth and transformation of Chinese footwear production: The political economy of a global industry.

摘要

The thesis examines the formation and transformation of the Chinese export-led footwear industry from a political-economic perspective. In particular, it explains why Taiwanese businessmen succeeded in developing the industry while Nike, the largest shoe producer in the word, failed. Several theories are explored, rooted in neoclassical economic, new institutional economics, new institutional sociology, and new economic sociology, to explain why the Taiwanese but not Nike succeeded in China. But these explanatory models are all found wanting. Instead, the thesis demonstrates that a model of markets as politics and fields, one that emphasizes the role of power, best accounts for the origin, evolution, and transformation of the Chinese export-led footwear industry. A stable status hierarchy, comprised of Taiwanese footwear producers, local officials, and migrant laborers, created a business environment that solved uncertainties embedded in the Chinese economic transition. The Taiwanese producers and local officials were less powerful than large firms and the state, despite being deeply involved in the Chinese economic "miracle," but by developing alliances with local political officials, Taiwanese business, with local political support, transformed China into the leading footwear producer in the world. However, tensions rooted in the Chinese economy, polity, and society are shown to make the future of the country's domination of global production uncertain.