China's Business System and its Future Trajectory

The authors present a sketch of the existing Chinese business system and discuss what they see as the main challenges in its future evolution. The authors argue that China will probably retain its own unique form of capitalism rather than converge on any presently existing model. Though the future shape of this form is difficult to predict, the available theory and evidence suggest that the present South Korean business system is probably the closest equivalent among the existing major forms of capitalism to what the Chinese business system may look like in the next 10 or 20 years. The authors lay out implications of our arguments for future research, especially in the area of institutional comparative advantage.