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This study focuses on state–state relations for business, a phenomenon shaped by how local power elites (LPEs), in this case, in Malaysia, collaborate with transnational corporate elites (TCEs), in this case, from China, to implement infrastructure projects linked to the latter's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). These LPE-TCE links, which have led to the creation of novel forms of state–business relations (SBRs), offer interesting theoretical insights for SBR-related studies. This article builds on the conventional wisdom of homogenised SBRs as usually driven by bureaucrats by indicating that, in practice, state–business ties are extremely heterogeneous, with the capture of key institutions by influential LPEs. A conceptual framework explains theoretically how state–state relations, forged by two countries, both led by dominant parties that control their respective enterprises, have contributed to unique SBRs created to undertake BRI projects, driven by LPE-TCE links. Case studies of three BRI projects in Malaysia provide insights into how disparate forms of SBR-based institutional architecture function, not only at the federal level, but also in different states, involving enterprises from China. Diverse types of power relationships have emerged in these joint ventures, encompassing different LPEs, contributing to the creation of dissimilar SBRs. These LPEs have turned effective SBRs, fashioned to implement BRI projects, into economic endeavours that feature rent-seeking behaviour. (J Southeast Asian Stud / GIGA)

This study uses the latest 2011 round of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey for the Russian Federation to take a closer look at regional-level factors influencing the business environment in Russia. Specifically, the study explores the role of regional administrations and variables of administrative continuity and governor origin in shaping regional business environment. The findings reveal that regional businesses in Russia are (1) acutely anxious about administrative transitions (as expressed in gubernatorial replacements) and favor administrative continuity, and (2) favor government officials that are locally embedded. The analysis suggests that many localities in Russia have witnessed the emergence of mutually beneficial state-business arrangements that are inimical to economic competition. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions. http://olabout.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-820227.html

Formal institutions such as business chambers have been assumed to be a key indicator of the health of state-business relations (SBR). Yet in Africa these organizations have seldom risen to the level of access and influence enjoyed by some of their counterparts elsewhere in the developing world. A number of recent studies of SBR in Africa continue to overstate the importance of business associations (BAs). Yet despite the widespread marginality of BAs in Africa, the receptiveness of African states to leading firms and business interests has increased markedly. While this poses certain risks of increased corruption, collusion and monopoly, the institutional and political environment for doing business has also improved, thereby fostering new opportunities for further business-related growth and business sector development among bona fide firms. Drawing on evidence from Zambia and elsewhere, this paper finds that the benefits provided to individual firms who enjoy state access can, paradoxically, contribute to an improved environment for other private sector actors whose interests are directly represented only in moribund formal associations. Even without strong BAs, when aided by the state, individual firms, and/or international actors, Africa's improved business environment has a salutary impact on growth.

When one set of social actors passes functions, knowledge of techniques and control of implementation in their key role areas to other actors there could be a number of possible causes and consequences. Some such transfers of control are mutually beneficial, a simple re-division of labour which acknowledges a changing social or environmental context or just the shifting balance of the preferences and priorities amongst the actors involved. But other transfers of control are less innocent and more 'coerced', with powers surrendered under pressure and their transfer carrying with it significant feed-through implications for future interactions, and possible ratcheteffects. This paper explores a critical area of this kind for the modern liberal democratic state, the out-sourcing of information and communications technologies (ICTs) from in-house provision by single-country government bureaucracies to multi-national service delivery and system integration companies. We consider first the extent and patterning of conventional ICT out-sourcing in the UK at central government level. Part 2 examines some key possible of the causes and consequences of the out-sourcing trend, and of the significance of a new and general public/private sector interface. The final section is more prospective, arguing that established patterns of control over ICTs have major implications for the transformation of governance now underway in advanced industrial countries towards a 'digital state' form, centred on Web-based public services.

In respect of the sources of East Asian dynamism, the dominant view is the notion that the East Asian high-growth, production-centred formula has been inextricably linked to an authoritarian state acting autonomously for economic development. The author disagrees with this view. She puts a theory of "governed independence" to account for strategic capacity in this region. The author supports her theory by examining government-business relations in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. (DÜI-Sen)

AbstractThis study uses the latest 2011 round of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey for the Russian Federation to take a closer look at regional‐level factors influencing the business environment in Russia. Specifically, the study explores the role of regional administrations and variables of administrative continuity and governor origin in shaping regional business environment. The findings reveal that regional businesses in Russia are (1) acutely anxious about administrative transitions (as expressed in gubernatorial replacements) and favour administrative continuity, and (2) favour government officials that are locally embedded. The analysis suggests that many localities in Russia have witnessed the emergence of mutually beneficial state‐business arrangements that are inimical to economic competition.

Cover -- Half Title -- Dedication -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Preface -- 1: Introduction -- 2: The Chaebol and the Keiretsu: The Futility of Organizational Explanations -- 3: Explaining the Rise of the Mafioso States in East Asia -- 4: The South Korean State and the Chaebol -- 5: The Japanese State and the Keiretsu -- 6: Reforming the Chaebol and the Keiretsu -- 7: Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index