But this is not the case with the Chinese. Always listen to your leader. Changing the way people think about these things is the most difficult task of a developing nation. Guthrie is pretty clear that the major influence behind recent developments in China is economic uncertainty coupled with foreign investment. Because Chinese managers can no longer count on automatic bailouts from the government, they are scrambling for new ways of survival.
Foreign capital is one easy answer.
For one thing, it provides cash. For another, it brings technology, often more valuable than the cash itself. Proclaiming a market, moreover, is one thing, and the actual implementation another. Here Guthrie s focus on the sociology of investment provides a perspective not always evident in the standard texts on trade and reform. Often, he says, the result is that Chinese managers ape Western practices less because they think this the way to maximize profit than to attract foreign capital.