When Chinese leaders announced in late 1978 that China would "open to the outside world," they embarked on a strategy for attracting private foreign capital to spur economic development. At the same time, they were concerned about possible negative repercussions of this policy. Margaret Pearson examines government efforts to control the terms of foreign investment between 1979 and 1988 and, more broadly, the abilities of socialist states in general to establish the terms of their own participation in the world economy. Drawing on interviews with Chinese and foreigners involved in joint ventures, Pearson focuses on the years from 1979 through 1988, but she also comments on the fate of the "open" policy following the economic retrenchment and political upheavals of the late 1980s. "Since the policy of `opening' was launched in Beijing in 1979 some Chinese leaders have favoured foreign investment, while others have feared that it would carry ideas and institutions that would corrupt Chinese socialism. This study of Chinese policies toward foreign-invested enterprises (FIFs) during the 1980s broadly charts significant changes in the impact of these competing views on policy. . . . Pearson's overview and analysis provide thought-provoking perspectives. . . . Pearson furnishes excellent evidence that throughout the 1980s the pressure for reform was so great that the conservatives had to retreat repeatedly, despite their concerns about the decline of collectivist values and the Maoist dream."--Stanley Lubman, The China Quarterly

The three geographically targeted volumes comprised in the Cooperative Strategies series--the most ambitious effort to date to explore the extent, nature, operations, and environment of cross-border cooperative linkages in North American, European, and Asian Pacific regions. The scholars who contributed to the Cooperative Strategies series include top experts in international strategy and management. Consolidating cutting-edge scholarship and forecasting of future trends, they focus on a wide variety of new cooperative business arrangements and offer the most up-to-date assessment of them. They present the most current research on topics such as: advances in theories of cooperative strategies; the formation of cooperative alliances; the dynamics of partner relationships; and the strategy and performance of cooperative alliances. Blending conceptual insights with empirical analyses, the contributors highlight commonalities and differences across national, cultural, and trade zones. The chapters in this volume are anchored in a wide set of theoretical approaches, conceptual frameworks, and models, illustrating how rich the area of cooperative strategies is for scholarly inquiry. The Cooperative Strategies Series represents an invaluable resource for serious academic study and for business practitioners who wish to improve not only their understanding but also the performances of their joint ventures and alliances.