Answer ONE question out of the ones provided with a maximum of 1000 words.
1. It is argued that the Chinese institutional system has encouraged the development of some internationally successful firms, and now these firms
move from basic technology manufacturing to medium-high tech. By concentrating on the role of the state, the financial system and authority
relations (workplace culture) evaluate the argument of the role of those institutional subsystems. In your answer you may consider the ability of large
firms to substitute the lack of institutional influences or overcome these.
2. There is a general agreement in the literature that apart from the very large company sector, the UK diverts from ideal types of the varieties of capitalism even though it is time to time described as a liberal market economy. By choosing examples from various industries show how the interaction between the institutional subsystems and firms create this divergence from the ideal types.
3. Institutional influences affect not only companies operating in a country, but also those operating internationally. Some of the companies may benefit from these, some may become less competitive. Concentrating on labour market characteristics and on workplace culture (trust, loyalty and authority), compare how Chinese subsidiaries in Germany, and German subsidiaries in China could benefit from the host-country institutional influences in strategic terms.
4. Skill formation systems (vocational and professional) have a major influence on the labour market and hence on corporate strategies. Discuss how skill formation systems are linked to labour market characteristics in Germany and the UK, and how these characteristics influence competence building and
strategies in different sectors and company sizes in these two countries.
5. Some of the academic literature indirectly argues that the Chinese institutional system limits the ability of Chinese companies to develop new competitive
strategies. Outline what could be the key elements of such an argument. Another body of the academic literature argues that the outward foreign direct
investment from China enabled Chinese companies in the medium-high and high technology sectors to develop new international strategies. By
concentrating on Germany and the UK outline how the institutional influences in these two countries may encourage managerial practices that enabled the
emergence of such new strategies.
