This thesis presents an empirical analysis of direct foreign investments in manufacturing in Hong Kong. The analysis is based upon two main data sources - Hong Kong government statistics and a questionnaire survey conducted in March 1979. The data collected are put together to provide a comprehensive picture of the investment pattern of the foreign manufacturers and to pinpoint their economic significance to Hong Kong. Their operational characteristics as well as their motives and needs are also explored to give better insights into their activities and to test the validity of direct foreign investment theories. Hong Kong has an extremely liberal economic policy and there is very little government intervention in private business activities. This policy is extended to its treatment of foreign investment. The outstanding feature is that it does not differentiate between foreign and local corporations. Consequently, there is no special restriction on foreign investment, but neither is any concession given. Foreign investors find this policy most agreeable. There is intensive and diversified foreign investment interest in Hong Kong. With the only exception of manufacturing, foreign investors now hold dominating positions in all major economic sectors. The number of foreign manufacturers comprises only about one percent of the total number of manufacturing establishments in Hong Kong, but their contributions in terms of providing industrial employment and exports are approximately ten times as much. More significantly, their investments have helped Hong Kong very much in its efforts to upgrade and diversify its industries. They are an important agent for transferring technology into Hong Kong. Foreign investors in manufacturing have come mostly from the U.S., Japan, Western Europe and Asian Pacific countries. The industries in which they have invested most are electronics, textiles, chemical products and electrical products. Foreign investments in manufacturing in Hong Kong are mostly of the export oriented type. There are close links in management, production and marketing established between the foreign manufacturers and their overseas affiliates indicating that their operations are integrated. Furthermore, foreign manufacturers appear to have a higher degree of sophistication and diversification in their production and marketing operations than their local counterparts. A comparison between U.S. and Japanese investment characteristics shows that four out of five hypothetical propositions derived from theoretical U.S. and Japanese foreign investment models are supported. There is enough evidence to indicate that the industries in which Japanese corporations invested are different and are technologically less advanced, that Japanese manufacturing operations are more labour intensive, that Japanese firms use unadapted home country technology more often and that Japanese firms export back to Japan a greater proportion of their sales than U.S. firms do to the U.S. The only one of the hypotheses examined which cannot be supported is that there is a higher incidence of minority holdings and joint ventures being used by Japanese manufacturers. In Hong Kong, both the U.S. and Japanese manufacturers have a strong preference for majority or full ownership. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

A key element that enables a firm to achieve better performance is a fit between environment and firm strategy. A review of the literature on strategic management reveals that this relationship is moderated by other contextual variables, and that these contextual variables have not been systematically studied. The major focus of this study was to examine the impact of an important contextual variable, property ownership type, on the environment-strategy relationship and its performance implications. To guide this study theoretically, the literature on organizational environment, strategy, the environment-strategy relationship, and property ownership was reviewed, and theoretical implications discussed. It was hypothesized that (1) firms exhibiting same ownership type were likely to respond to perceived environment with similar strategy, and such responses varied across ownership types, (2) such strategic decisions would lead to better firm performance, and (3) in addition to the indirect impact of ownership on performance through the environment-strategy relationship, ownership type also had direct impact on performance. In order to test these hypotheses, constructs were operationalized in multidimensional manner. Perceived environment was operationalized in terms of three dimensions (resource scarcity, dynamism, and complexity), and strategy was operationalized in terms of five dimensions (futurity, proactiveness, analysis, defensiveness, and riskiness). Each of these dimensions were found to be theoretically significant in previous research. The research was set in the People’s Republic of China. Two hundred and two firms were surveyed, and these firms represented four ownership types (state enterprises, collective enterprises, joint venture enterprises, and private enterprises). Analysis of results suggest that ownership type is a theoretically important variable that has significant impact on variables that subject to managerial control. Firm ownership type moderated the magnitude (in two ownership types) and configuration (in another two ownership types) of environment-strategy relationship. This moderating effect of ownership led to significant performance implications. Moreover, firm ownership also had significant direct impact on firm performance. Findings from this study contribute insight into the environment-strategy relationship and hold promise for studying strategic management issues in former centrally planned economies undergoing transition toward market economies. / Ph. D.

by Li Sau-fan, Elsie. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-76). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vi / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.vii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.viii / Chapter / Chapter I. --- BACKGROUND AND STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.7 / Definition of Quality --- p.7 / "Selected Approaches to ""Quality""" --- p.8 / W. Edwards Deming --- p.8 / Philip B. Crosby --- p.12 / Deming vs. Crosby: Conflict or Synthesis --- p.15 / Chapter III. --- MODERN APPLICATION OF THE DELIVERY OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN SERVICE --- p.17 / Applying Statistical Control Philosophies to Service Quality Assessment --- p.18 / Background --- p.18 / A Gap Orientation to Service Quality --- p.23 / An Example --- p.26 / Managerial Implications and Recommendations --- p.29 / Selecting an Appropriate Approach to TQM Implementation --- p.30 / The Organization Alignment Model --- p.32 / Implementation --- p.41 / Chapter IV. --- CASE STUDY --- p.43 / One : Rank Xerox Hong Kong --- p.43 / The Quality Planning Process --- p.44 / Leadership Through Quality Programme --- p.44 / Management Commitment --- p.45 / A Strategic Focus on Internal and External Customers --- p.45 / Problems Encountered and Remedies --- p.46 / Conclusion --- p.47 / Two : American Express --- p.48 / The Magnitude of Quality Service in Amex --- p.48 / Late 1970's: Quality Assurance Programme --- p.49 / Current Approach: Teamwork Approach to American Express Quality Leadership (AEQL) --- p.50 / Chapter V. --- IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE IMPLEMENTATION OF TQM --- p.54 / Five Tenets of TQM --- p.54 / A Strategic Approach to Quality --- p.56 / Conclusion --- p.58 / APPENDIX --- p.59 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.74

After 30 years' market reforms and exported-oriented industrialization, China has created an economic miracle by playing the role of a world factory. With a case study of a high-tech electronics manufacturing firm (anonymously referred as HiTek) in Suzhou, this dissertation explores the labor process and labor relations in advanced manufacturing under the global production system and in the context of China's industrial upgrading. / In my empirical analysis, I firstly trace how global production network changes the production process and unravel the mutual influences between the labor market with local clustering and the employers' recruitment strategies. I take them as the key background factors in the shaping of the politics of flexible production. Then, I use the case study of HiTek and analyze how it implements the customized mass production with high performance and high flexibility on the shop floor in the face of volatile product markets and labor market. I point out that in order to secure the subordination and better cooperation from its workers, HiTeck gives up the direct coercive despotic factory regime and executes the flexible despotism combining with enforcing strict disciplinary management, responding to workers' interests and rights, and even establishing the internal communication mechanisms. However, I indicate that although workers obtain more legal rights, they fail to effectively improve their labor conditions under the new labor control. In the meantime, the social status of migrant workers restricts their claims for social benefits and enhances their mobility. As a result, workers have to voice and seek to make use labor market opportunities for improving their conditions. Finally, I stress that the consequence of the interaction between the global flexible production and the workers' resistance against labor control leads to the uncertain employment relationship characterized by the high turnover of workers. I also emphasize that it is Chinese workers who finally pay high costs for such a relationship: they not only fail to enhance bargaining powers with their employers, but also suffer from an insecure and uncertain environment. / The dissertation develops an analytical framework of the politics of flexible production in the age of the globalizing production. My theoretical discussion begins with the theory of production politics developed by Michael Burawoy. I emphasize that labor process should be examined not only within the workplace, but also in relation to external societal factors. I argue that the pursuit of flexibility of global production changes the structuring of labor process: the external markets are not static conditions to manufacturers, but are now becoming dynamic factors shaping production arrangements and labor control. Hence, I indicate that flexible production has brought about a sophisticated triangular relationship between the buyers from developed countries, the transnational manufacturers in newly industrialized countries, and the workers in developing countries, particularly in China. This is quite different from the previous studies wherein the focus is placed on a simple dual relationship between manufactures and workers within a single country. / 薛紅. / Adviser: Tai-Lok Lui. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-10, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-215). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Xue Hong.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / abstract / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Geography / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. / Department of Government and Public Administration