Technology Development in Rural Industries

Hannah Piek

doi:10.3362/9781780446103

Technology Development in Rural Industries

A study of China's collectives

This book is a study of the development and acquisition of technology by a group of small and medium-sized rural industries in Sichuan province, China. The enterprises are mainly collective ones, but they are compared with other ownership groups, such as private and state enterprises. Careful analysis, using time series data and a survey sample of rural collective industries in two counties in China, reveals that the Chinese technology system is ineffective in reaching all private and public ownership groups, especially the rural collective enterprises, and does not promote co-operation and assistance. Technology Development in Rural Industries will be of interest to economists, developmentalists, NGOs, social scientists, and private and public consultants within the development field.

Published: 1998
Pages: 292

eBook: 9781780446103

Paperback: 9781853394225


INTRODUCTION 1
PART I: BACKGROUND, THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
1 Development and Industrialisation 13
Development and the Economics of Growth 13
Strategies of Industrialisation 15
Spatial Development: The Call For an Integrated Approach 19
Rural and Small-scale Industries 21
Summary 25
Industrialisation in China 27
An Introduction to the Field Study
Introduction 27
Some Historical Notes 28
Industrialisation and the External Sector 30
From import substitution to export orientation 31
Reforms in the external sector 34
Growth poles and regional development 35
Conclusion 36
The State Technology System 37
The educational system 37
The science and technology sector 38
Conclusion 41
Rural Industries and Technological Development 41
The rural-urban divide 42
Technological development in rural industries 43
Allocation of inputs 47
Ownership and size of enterprises 49
Conclusion 53
Summary 54
Development and Acquisition of Technology 57
Two Lines of Thought 57
Capability Building and Innovation 58
Defining Technology 61
The Entire Complex of Human Skills Within the Firm 64
Inter-Enterprise Cooperation 66
Enterprises, Institutions and the Government 69
Development and Acquisition of Technology 72
Methodological Considerations 75
Introduction 75
Research Location 76
Research Population 79
Data Gathering 84
Representation and Limitation 85
Summary 86
PART D: THE SURVEY
Rural Industry in Santai and Qianwei 89
An Analysis of Secondary Longitudinal Data
Introduction 89
Raising Local Skills Through Non-Agricultural Employment 91
The Importance of Rural Manufacturing in Rural Industry 93
The Importance of Rural Collectives 96
The Size Structure of Enterprises 99
Development of Technology 101
Diversity Within the Group of Collectives 103
Summary of Findings 105
The Sample: Firm Size and Technology 109
An Analysis of Primary Longitudinal Data
Introduction 109
The Size Structure of the Sample 110
Development of Technology in the Sample 114
Ownership, Size and Technology in the Sample 116
Sectors: Firm Size and Technology 121
Summary of Findings 124
Establishment and Finance 127
Determinants of Technology
Introduction 127
The Establishment of Enterprises 128
The year of establishment and the establisher 128
Reasons for establishing an enterprise: ownership and sectors 130
Conclusion 134
Financial Sources . 135
The bank and credit cooperatives 136
The application of fiscal policy 139
Enterprise profit and its spending 142
Employee shares 146
Conclusion 147
Enterprise Expenditure 148
Ownership, Finance and Technology 149
Summary of Findings 152
The Technological Environment of the Firm 157
On Market and Institutional Linkages
Introduction 157
Input Linkages 158
Human-embodied technology: the labour market 158
Ermet-embodied technology: energy and materials 160
Equipment-embodied technology 163
Conclusion 166
Output Linkages 166
Institutional Linkages 172
Organisations and cooperative relations 173
The Science and Technology Commission and Spark Programme 175
The Standard Measure Bureau and Property Rights System Yll
Winning awards 179
Government supervision 179
Conclusion 181
Statistical Analyses 183
Ownership, sectors and counties 184
Size and Technology 186
Concluding remarks 189
A Summary of Findings 189
Acquisition of Technology Within the Firm 193
On Skills, Equipment, Incentives and Problem Solving
Introduction 193
Human-Embodied Technology 194
Management's skills 194
The composition of the labour force: employee skills 196
Conclusion 201
Equipment-Embodied Technology 202
Organization-Embodied Technology 205
Raising skills: Incentives for employees 205
Raising skills: Training 209
Raising skills and solving problems 211
Conclusion 213
Statistical Analyses 214
Ownership, sectors and counties 214
Technology and size 216
Of wages, bonuses and other relations 222
Conclusion 222
Summary of Findings 223
10 Summary and Concluding Remarks 227
PART IQ: APPENDICES 239
Appendix to Chapter 7 241
Appendix to Chapter 8 247
Appendix to Chapter 9 255
Questionnaire 259
Bibliography 265
Acknowledgements 275